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In re Estate of Carpenter2/10/2004
{ } In May 2003, 16 civil rights lawsuits pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio involving 22 plaintiffs, 44 individual defendants, and the city of Cincinnati were settled by establishing a qualified settlement fund of $4.5 million through the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. See"Order Establishing Qualified Settlement Fund, Appointing Fund Administrator, and Conditionally Dismissing Claims with Prejudice," attached as Exhibit A to the Amicus Brief of Civil Rights Attorneys in support of the motions to seal the records filed in both the Thomas and Carpenter estates. The 468B process allows multiple defendants to pay to multiple plaintiffs on multiple claims by making a single payment through an administrator. The defendants are not involved in the division or distribution of the funds among the plaintiffs. That is left to the administrator of the 468B federal fund and the various plaintiffs. Although the overall settlement was published, the federal court sealed whatever agreements were ultimately concluded by the various plaintiffs and the 468B administrator.
{ } Two of the cases involved in the settlement fund are before this court because Ohio law mandates that this court approve settlements of wrongful death cases and division of settlement funds among next of kin. R.C. 2125.03(A)(1). Further, as part of the settlement, distributions were to be made to two minor children of deceased parents. Consequently, guardianships and wrongful death trusts were established for these children, pursuant to R.C. 2125.03(A)(2).
{ } The first case involves the estate of Michael Demon Carpenter, whose family alleged that his death on March 19, 1999, was the result of excessive use of force by members of the Cincinnati Police Department as they attempted to arrest him. The second case involves Timothy Thomas, who was fatally shot by a Cincinnati police officer on April 7, 2001, after a foot chase in the Over the Rhine section of Cincinnati. Both of these deaths were highly publicized and led to civil rights claims in the federal court and were two of the cases involved in the qualified settlement fund.
{ } The administrator of the estate of Michael Carpenter and the administrator of the estate of Timothy Thomas, together with the guardians and the trustees appointed in the estates and wrongful death trusts of the decedents' minor children, Tyeisha Carpenter, the minor child of Michael Carpenter and Tywon Thomas, the minor child of Timothy Thomas, moved to seal all records in the respective estates, guardianships, and trusteeships. Their various motions to seal were supported by Alfonse A. Gerhardstein, Scott T. Greenwood, and Kenneth L. Lawson, the trial attorneys for the plaintiffs in the civil rights cases in the United States District Court; by Donald Hardin, defense attorney for individual defendants in those actions; by Julie Bissinger, attorney for the city of Cincinnati; and by Colleen B. Laux, guardian ad litem of the minor Tyeisha M. Carpenter and the minor Tywon Thomas.
{ } All the motions request that every record in each of the estates, guardianships, and trusts be sealed for the reason that the federal district court sealed the division of the qualified settlement fund. The motions argue further that disclosure in this court of the respective settlement amounts from the qualified settlement fund would violate the district court's order. These figures appear in the applications to approve the settlement and distribution of the wrongful death proceeds in both estates. In effect, the applicants are asserting that this is derivative information from the sealed agreements and, as such, must be sealed in th
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