Judge orders records unsealed in Anaconda bar shooting case after push by news outlets

A judge on Tuesday ordered nearly every document in the case involving the man charged with murdering four people at an Anaconda bar last August be unsealed after Montana news organizations pushed to make the records public.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge District Court Judge Jeffrey Dahood ordered that every document that has been sealed in Michael Brown’s murder case since August — save for one mental health evaluation — be unsealed on May 8. The records are expected to reveal for the first time the details of what transpired Aug. 1, when four patrons were killed at the Owl Bar in Anaconda, as well as a multiday manhunt that followed.

The May 8 date was given so attorneys can notify families of the victims that the records will be unsealed and that details of the shooting will be public.

A coalition of media organizations, including Lee Enterprises, The Montana Standard’s parent company, as well as the Montana Newspaper Association, Montana Free Press, Montana Broadcasters Association, Daily Montanan and Montana FOI Coalition, sued in January seeking to unseal the documents, which were sealed in August without the judge consulting the press.

The coalition, represented by law firm Goetz, Geddes & Gardner, argued that state law, the Montana Constitution and court precedent in Montana required that the press have an opportunity to be heard as to why the records should be public before they were sealed. Prosecutors said they wanted all the case records to be sealed to ensure Brown’s right to a fair trial.

The Montana Supreme Court earlier this year ruled the coalition indeed needed the chance to make a case as to why the records should be unsealed. Attorneys for the state and for Brown in recent weeks offered the coalition’s attorney to have all the records unsealed, except for Brown’s mental health evaluation.

The coalition agreed, and prosecutors filed the motion to unseal on Tuesday, which Dahood granted later in the afternoon. A hearing scheduled for Thursday, in which the coalition was going to present evidence as to why the documents should be public, was canceled.

“We’re glad the prosecution and defense in the Brown case recognized that the law, the state constitution and legal precedent in Montana demand that, with few exceptions, court documents in criminal cases are open to the public,” Mike Dennison, president of the Montana Freedom of Information Coalition, said in a statement. “We also hope this outcome serves as a message to prosecutors, defense counsel and judges across the state that, in Montana, these documents are public documents.”

Ahead of the unsealing, Brown is scheduled to appear in court next Wednesday, May 6, for a status hearing. He faces four felony counts of deliberate homicide, one felony count of attempted arson, one felony theft count and a misdemeanor count of fleeing from or eluding a peace officer.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges last September.