Ohio High Court Lifts Judge’s Orders to Media in Murder Case

The Ohio Supreme Court, acting on a suit filed by several news media outlets, late Friday lifted a series of orders issued by the judge in the case of the alleged cult slayings of five members of a family.

In addition to imposing a gag order on defense lawyers and prosecutors, Lake County Common Pleas Judge Martin Parks ordered local television stations to save all videotapes of their coverage of the slayings and prohibited them from filming one of the defendants, Ronald Luff of Independence, Mo.

But NBC and its Cleveland subsidiary, WKYC-TV, filed a challenge Friday with the state Supreme Court. Joining WKYC were WJW, the local CBS affiliate, WEWS, the ABC affiliate, independent WUAB and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“The fundamental question is whether a trial judge may arbitrarily restrain (the media’s) rights to gather and disseminate news through the issuance of orders against them without notice or opportunity to be heard,” the station’s motion said. “The U.S. and Ohio constitutions declare that such orders are void and unenforceable.”

On Jan. 3-4, the bodies of Dennis Avery, 49, his wife Cheryl, 42, and their three children, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 6, were found buried in a common grave in a barn in Kirtland, Ohio, where a religious cult had stayed for several months.

They were shot in April, allegedly at the orders of cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren.

Lundgren, the leader of the group which had broken away from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and 12 other defendants have been indicted on various charges, with Lundgren, his son, Damon, and three others facing capital murder charges.