CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Media Limited at Puente Hearing

The preliminary hearing for landlady Dorothea Puente, accused of killing nine of her elderly tenants for their pension checks, will be open to reporters but not to TV or newspaper cameras, a judge ruled Friday. Municipal Judge Gail D. Ohanesian’s decision ended a three-day legal battle by the news media over coverage of the event. Puente’s attorneys had asked that the hearing be closed to all media coverage. The sensational case already has attracted nationwide publicity. Puente’s lawyers argued that coverage of the hearing would prejudice her right to a fair trial in Sacramento County. Ohanesian said there are “substantial grounds” for the defense argument of prejudice, but that it had to be balanced against the right of public access to criminal justice.