ALFRED — A York County prosecutor is asking the judge in a domestic violence case to exclude the public from a court proceeding scheduled for Friday and make whatever happens there secret.

In a motion filed late Thursday in York County Superior Court in the case of 33-year-old Paul Olsen, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Miscio said material could be introduced at Friday’s hearing that, whether true or false, could damage the careers of officers from the Eliot Police Department.

Miscio’s request comes just a week after a judge in Portland made a controversial ruling to prohibit the media from reporting witness testimony in a criminal case against a well-known Standish attorney, Anthony J. Sineni III, who was being sentenced on charges of assault and disorderly conduct.

Judge Jeffrey Moskowitz rescinded that gag order days later, admitted it was unlawful and apologized after the Portland Press Herald defied the order and First Amendment experts criticized it.

On Thursday, Justice John O’Neil Jr. left the courthouse in Alfred without ruling on Miscio’s motion, leaving it uncertain whether the public will be allowed into Friday’s hearing, which is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Olsen is charged with burglary, aggravated assault, gross sexual assault, domestic violence assault, stalking, criminal threatening and criminal mischief. If convicted, he will face as much as 30 years in prison.

Advertisement

Miscio, reached by phone Thursday evening, said Olsen’s case is very different from Sineni’s because Olsen’s case is in the preliminary phase, in which evidence has yet to be vetted for admissibility, while Sineni’s was a plea and sentencing hearing.

“There’s always certain circumstances when it’s entirely appropriate to close the courtroom,” Miscio said. “The court is in a position to protect private citizens’ privacy rights before the information is out there.”

Olsen’s attorney, Amy Fairfield, hopes to convince the judge at Friday’s hearing that some of the officers who investigated the case against Olsen in 2012 have a proven record of falsifying police documents. She wants police to be forced to turn that information over to her for use as evidence in Olsen’s defense.

She said she was “shocked” at Miscio’s request to close Friday’s hearing to the public.

“The First Amendment is alive and well and it’s part of our process,” said Fairfield, speaking at her Lyman law office after court closed for the day on Thursday.

In an order scheduling Friday’s hearing, O’Neil wrote that Fairfield will be allowed to call witnesses to testify, to determine whether there is any documentation that Eliot police officers falsified records.

Eliot police accused Olsen of choking his former girlfriend, hitting her and raping her in an attack at her home in Eliot on Sept. 19, 2012.

Police said Olsen left the woman’s house at 6 a.m. after an all-night assault and was arrested late that day by Knox County sheriff’s deputies at his grandmother’s house in Waldoboro.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.