California told to open parole files for 2 men accused of slayings

A Sacramento County judge on Friday said he did not buy the state’s argument that how parole agents monitor sex offenders is confidential, and directed lawyers to prepare to release portions of the supervision files of two men accused of killing four women.

The state’s argument that parolees enjoy privacy rights is the same one California made four years ago in attempting to seal the supervision records of Phillip Garrido, a paroled sex offender who kidnapped Jaycee Dugard and held her captive for 18 years. The state lost that case and was forced to release the files.

The two parolees in the current case -- a Los Angeles Times lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation -- are Franc Cano and Steven Gordon, arrested in Orange County last spring after the murders of four women. They were indicted by a grand jury last month to stand trial on those charges.

Both men had been under electronic monitoring by the corrections department.

The department denied a request by The Times in April to see files that would show how closely Cano and Gordon were monitored. The Anaheim Police Department, investigating the murders, said it did not object to the release of some of that information.

California Deputy Atty. Gen. Nancy Doig argued Friday before Judge Allen Sumner that parole files contain confidential personal, criminal and investigatory information that makes the entire files secret.

“No, categorically, they are not,” Sumner replied. He gave state attorneys a little more than a month to sift through some 1,000 pages of records for any sections they could ask the judge to seal. The Times will have the chance to contest those exemptions.

In the interim, Sumner directed the state to release remaining portions of the files.

For criminal justice coverage, follow @paigestjohn on Twitter.