Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting Details Should Remain Sealed, Judge Says

Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic shooting details should remain sealed, the judge overlooking the case of a gunman charged in the shootout told the Colorado Supreme Court Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. In his filing, Judge Gilbert Martinez stated that the media does not have a First Amendment right to obtain court records and that making the documents public could harm gunman Robert Lewis Dear’s case, the AP reported.

The judge’s filing came after two news outlets, including the AP, petitioned the state's high court to reverse Martinez's order of sealing the documents involving Dear’s arrest and the search of his house. The two news network argued that the public has constitutional right to supervise the court system.

Dear, who hails from South Carolina, is charged with 179 felony counts, including charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault for the Nov. 27 shooting. The 57-year-old told a television station last month that he did not plan the shooting and targeted the reproductive health organization because it was "murdering little babies." Dear added that he wants to plead guilty for the shooting and expects to be executed.

"I felt like they were going to get me, and so I am going to pick where I am going to make my last stand, and I picked Planned Parenthood because it's murdering little babies," Dear said "Well, when I got there, of course, those guys knew I was armed, knew everything about me. They slither off like snakes and they get the local cops to do their dirty work, so that's why the shootout was there."

Dear has been held without bond since surrendering after a nearly five-hour siege at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.