SANDRA CANTU - 8 yo (3/2009) - Tracy CA

STOCKTON - Autopsy reports of Sandra Cantu, the
8-year-old Tracy girl murdered in 2009, will remain sealed at her
family's request, attorneys said Monday.
A law signed last year by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves it up to the
family of slain children to release autopsy reports, or not, when a
child is killed during a crime.
The bill was written partly in response to Sandra's case.
Stockton attorney Stewart Tabak said the law
allows Sandra's mother, Maria Chavez, and sister, Simone Chavez, to seal
the records despite requests by media organizations to have them made public.
"Contrary to certain claims, there are
some things the public does not have either a need or a right to know,
such as gory, gruesome details of an autopsy of a murdered child," Tabak said.
Melissa Huckaby, 30, pleaded guilty to
murdering Sandra after kidnapping her from the mobile home park where
they were neighbors. Sandra's remains were recovered from inside a black
suitcase, dumped in a dairy pond.
The case made national news.
After Huckaby received her life prison sentence, The Record, Bay Area News
Group and The Associated Press challenged a court gag order, keeping
secret search warrants, grand jury transcripts and the autopsy reports.
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus made all but the autopsy reports public.
A media attorney argued that releasing the details of this crime was
important because Huckaby pleaded guilty and did not undergo a public
trial. The public has a right to know if Huckaby was correctly charged and other details.
Yet, attorneys for Sandra's family said the mourning relatives did not want autopsy photos to go
viral on the Internet. Sandra and her family were entitled to dignity,
the family's attorney argued.
A fight over the records went to a civil court, where a judge last year delayed hearing
the case until Monday. By then, the new law had gone into effect,
leaving the release of autopsy reports up to the murdered child's
family. No court hearing was held.
San Joaquin County Deputy County Counsel Matthew Dacey said Monday that Sandra's
autopsy reports will remain sealed under the new law according to her family's wishes.
"It was a nonissue at that point," Dacey said.


Poster's Note: While I would find it distasteful to read I disagree with this ruling/ new law on two points:
1) The autopsy is performed by a taxpayer paid clinician. I don't care what it is, as taxpayers we have a right to see the results.
2) The more people that see the horrors that were performed on this child the more people will become incensed and keep vigilant for predators like Ol' Razor Blade.

Poster's Note: I have posted this Editorial as I have some issues with this secrecy and I will address those in the next post.

By Tammerlin Drummond
Staff columnist
© Copyright 2011, Bay Area News Group
Posted: 08/20/2011 04:00:00 PM PDT



The public's right to know is a fundamental tenet of democracy.
The California Public Records Act requires all state and local
government agencies to disclose -- upon request from any citizen --
documents and other information in their possession that pertain to
public business. That is unless the public officials can demonstrate
that releasing the record would cause undue harm.
As journalists,
it is our job to hold public officials' feet to the fire. We take legal
action against agencies that try to withhold information. We do so
because public access to government records is so important in our
efforts to hold public employees accountable and root out corruption.
Yet
there are times when the public's right to know conflicts with an
individual's right to privacy, times when the harm to an individual
would be so great that it far outweighs the public benefit in releasing
the information. I fervently believe that to be the case when it comes
to the release of autopsy reports of children who have been murdered.
Last
year, the Legislature passed the Deceased Child Victims' Protection and
Privacy Act. It was introduced by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth,
R-Murrieta, on behalf of two families in San Diego County whose teen
daughters had been raped and murdered by a convicted child molester.
The
law allows the parent of a child who died as the result of a crime to
petition to have the autopsy report sealed. This is only after the

perpetrator has been
sentenced for the crime. Hollingsworth drafted the bill to block
numerous media requests for 17-year-old Chelsea King's autopsy report."These
families have endured such horrific tragedies, they shouldn't be
victimized a second time by the public airing of these reports,"
Hollingworth said.
Let's consider this for a moment.
These
parents have endured a nightmare that most of us can't even imagine.
They have seen autopsy photographs of their daughters' battered bodies
-- knowing the agony that they must have suffered in their final
moments. Then, they had to sit politely in a courtroom day after day
facing the man accused of these monstrous crimes.
How would you
feel as a parent if, after all of that, people were clamoring to get
ahold of the autopsy report in all its grisly details and publicize it?
Wouldn't you feel violated all over again?
Last week, a judge applied the law to seal the autopsy report of Sandra Cantu at her parents' request.
Sandra
was abducted in 2009 from her home in Tracy in a case that garnered
national attention. Her body was found stuffed in a suitcase that had
been dumped in an irrigation pond. Melissa Huckaby, an acquaintance, was
sentenced to life in prison for raping and killing the little girl. The
judge had sealed the autopsy report during the trial on the grounds
that 1) it would have inflamed the jury and hurt the defendant's chances
for a fair trial and 2) it would invade Sandra's family's privacy.
Several
news organizations -- including the Bay Area News Group -- had
petitioned for release of the autopsy report as well as all other public
records pertaining to the court case.
Cantu's uncle Joe Chavez
called attempts to "unseal the morbid, grotesque and disgusting details
of what Melissa has done to the body of my niece nothing less than
trying to look up the skirt of a dead 8-year-old girl."
Cantu
family members feared that in the age of the Internet sickos would be
free to post and repost the gruesome photos ad nauseam.
The
California Newspaper Publishers Association argued that the media needs
access to public records so that it can hold the justice system and
criminals accountable. That in cases when child-killers are family
members, they could seek to keep investigative records secret to protect
relatives.
This is a valid concern. Yet that was not at issue in
these cases. There are plenty of investigative and court records in the
public domain to establish how Sandra died.
Furthermore the
Legislature left intact certain key exceptions. The autopsies of
children who are wards of the state cannot be sealed. So if a child dies
while under the care of Child Protective Services, the public will have
access to the autopsy. The records will also be available to law
enforcement and for evidence in civil suits.
I believe the law strikes a fair balance between the public interest and an individual's right to privacy.
There are just some things the public doesn't need to know.
http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_18717668

That is unless the public officials can demonstrate
that releasing the record would cause undue harm.

---Who is making this decision for us? earlier you said...

The public's right to know is a fundamental tenet of democracy.

So? What makes this any different? Undue harm to whom? The family? They already know the gruesome details. We want to know so that we can expose the horror that can occur just steps from your own front door!

Yet there are times when the public's right to know conflicts with an individual's right to privacy, times when the harm to an individual
would be so great that it far outweighs the public benefit in releasing
the information. I fervently believe that to be the case when it comes
to the release of autopsy reports of children who have been murdered.

I fervently believe that you are an asshat! We are not harming anyone. We are educating the taxpayers on what did and could happen.

Cantu's uncle Joe Chavez called attempts to "unseal the morbid, grotesque and disgusting details of what Melissa has done to the body of my niece nothing less than trying to look up the skirt of a dead 8-year-old girl."

Well Joe, I truly feel deep sorrow for your loss and was one of those who pushed to have J4C cover other cases when your niece went missing. Since then we have posted hundreds upon hundreds of cases, even first-hand investigated some, all with the explicit intent of informing the public of the horrors that exist right next door. Further, another goal is strike fear into the hearts of the evil-doers and let them know that there are people out there who will track them until their dying day.

Cantu family members feared that in the age of the Internet sickos would be free to post and repost the gruesome photos ad nauseam.

To my knowledge nobody was requesting pictures, but rather we were looking for the actual tax-payer funded autopsy results. We are not so gruesome as to want pictures of how her body was devastated.

I believe the law strikes a fair balance between the public interest and an individual's right to privacy. There are just some things the public doesn't need to know.

There is NOTHING that the tax-paying public doesn't need to know. I am certain that this concept was, however, very popular in Nazi Germany.
Rant concluded.
Hang Tough my friends

An event recognizing children in the community is returning to Tracy.

Celebrating Tracy’s Children is scheduled for Thursday, March 8, and will feature free activities from several businesses in Tracy, according to event organizer Janet Anderson.

The second-year event, for Tracy residents age 12 and younger, falls on what would be the 11th birthday of Sandra Cantu, said Anderson, who is also Cantu’s cousin.

In March 2009, Sandra, then 8 years old, went missing from her home in Tracy. Melissa Huckaby, a Sunday school teacher and Cantu’s neighbor, subsequently pleaded guilty to murdering the child and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in June 2010.

Anderson stated in an email that the event both recognizes all children in Tracy and honors Sandra’s memory.

“She loved playing with others, and I believe she would have truly enjoyed watching the children enjoy a day like this,” she said. “Children are a special gift and our future, and Celebrating Tracy’s Children is a way for us to celebrate the gift of our community’s children.”

Anderson said participants can attend individual events or all of them, but she said several of the classes have size limits and participation is on a first-come, first-served basis.

For details about each event: www.tracycelebrateschildren.com.



Read more: Tracy Press - Children to be celebrated on Sandra Cantu’s birthday