Heather Elvis search warrant appeal back in court Nov. 13
Updated: 7:58 am, Wed Nov 5, 2014.
Attorneys for the Carolina Forest Chronicle and other Myrtle Beach area newspapers are scheduled to appear in court next week to argue for the release of search warrants in the Heather Elvis case. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 13 at the Horry County Government & Justice Center in Conway. Circuit Court Judge Steven John is expected to preside. Horry County Magistrate Aaron Butler refused previous Waccamaw Publishers' requests for the search warrants, prompting the newspaper group to challenge Butler's refusal in Horry County Circuit Court.
Waccamaw Publishers is the parent company of the Carolina Forest Chronicle, Horry Independent, Myrtle Beach Herald, Loris Scene, The News & Shopper, Visit!, and the websites MyHorryNews.com and myrtlebeachvisit.com. The Sun News has joined in the Waccamaw Publishers appeal, and is being represented by local attorney George Redman. "It is the newspapers' belief the magistrate applied the wrong standard to deny access," said Jay Bender, a Columbia media law attorney representing Waccamaw Publishers and also the S.C. Press Association, of which the Chronicle is a member.
Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman presided at a hearing to resolve the matter in June, but deferred making a ruling. Hyman said at the June hearing that Judge John should decide the issue because of a gag order he issued in the Heather Elvis case.
Butler's attorneys have said the gag order applies to the release of the search warrants. "This involves an interpretation of his [John's] order and he wants the matter brought before him," Hyman said. "He understands this issue."
Releasing search warrants is not unprecedented in South Carolina. In June, a Georgetown County magistrate released a search warrant that was filed in 2010 in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, another high-profile missing persons case.
"I don't mind you having this," Isaac Pyatt, chief magistrate for Georgetown County, said to a Chronicle reporter.
And in 2006, a York County (S.C.) circuit court judge overturned a magistrate's decision to withhold search warrants issued when a former coroner was charged with possessing cocaine. "The Constitution guarantees the public the right of access to court records," Bender said. "The position the newspaper is taking here is consistent with the right of court access." Waccamaw Publishers sought search warrants and warrant findings in the Heather Elvis case shortly after the arrest of Sidney Moorer, 38, and Tammy Moorer, 42, on Feb. 21. The Moorers are charged with murder, kidnapping, indecent exposure and obstruction of justice in connection with Elvis' disappearance.
Elvis, 21, was 20 years old when she was last seen Dec. 17, 2013 and heard from on Dec. 18, 2013. She has not been found. A cause of death has not been released and no known forensic evidence has been collected. Police have not said why they filed murder charges.
Initially, Butler said in court records that he refused to release the search warrants because of the "ongoing investigation". Butler later claimed judicial immunity in court documents filed April 29 in response to the Waccamaw Publishers appeal filed April 3. "We filed the motion because the appeal supposedly filed by Waccamaw Publishers is certainly not legal because what they're doing is they're appealing from a letter," Myrtle Beach attorney Henrietta Golding, who?s representing Butler, said at the time. "You have to have a lawsuit, a summons and complaint," Golding said. "That certainly has not occurred in this matter."
In June, an attorney from Golding's firm who represented Butler at the hearing, argued the magistrate can?t release the warrants because of a gag order Judge John signed on March 21. "These orders made March 21 may govern the request by Waccamaw Publishers," Jim Gilliam, an attorney for Butler, said during the hearing.
Bender said the gag order has "no influence" over access to court records filed in the Heather Elvis case.
"I reject out of hand that even a judge presiding over a murder case can issue an order that tells everyone in the world you can't talk about it," Bender said. "The absurdity of that notion was on display in the WMBF case when the [police] wanted to argue that Judge John's order had some connection with a trespassing case."
WMBF anchor Michael Maely was found not guilty on trespassing charges during a trial in October. He was charged after Moorer family members filed a complaint with Horry County police. Horry County police Det. Marcus Rhodes, who represented the Moorers in that trial, wanted the media excluded from the proceedings on the grounds it would violate the gag order. Bradley Mayers, the presiding magistrate, denied Rhodes' request and allowed the media to remain.
Judge John's gag order prohibits trial participants from making extrajudicial comments in the Heather Elvis case. It covers prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, employees of the solicitor's office, police officers investigating the case and the Moorers themselves. Magistrates are not mentioned in the gag order. "He [Judge John] is providing political cover for those who want to be gagged," Bender said.
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