Opinion
05-22-00284-CR
08-12-2022
DALLAS LEO-SHANE TURPEN, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 380th Judicial District Court Collin County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 380-82346-2021
ORDER
LANA MYERS JUSTICE
On July 18, 2022, the entire 233-page clerk's record was filed as a sealed record. The clerk's record contains the trial court's June 14, 2022 order providing that six ex parte motions and six orders previously placed under seal also be filed in the appellate record under seal. However, the remaining documents in the clerk's record were not subject to any sealing order.
Rule 9.10(g) provides:
A court may also order that a document be filed under seal in paper form or electronic form, without redaction. The court may later unseal the
document or order the filer to provide a redacted version of the document for the public record. If a court orders material sealed, whether it be sensitive data or other materials, the court's sealing order must be affixed to the outside of the sealed container if the sealed material is filed in paper form, or be the first document that appears if filed in electronic form. Sealed portions of the clerk's and reporter's records should be clearly marked and separated from unsealed portions and tendered as separate records, whether in paper form or electronic form.
Sealed material shall not be available either on the internet or in other form without court order. Tex.R.App.P. 9.10(g) (emphasis added).
Because the twelve motions and orders were sealed by court order, they must be filed in a separate sealed volume along with a copy of the trial court's order. However, the remaining documents in the clerk's record were not sealed, and they may not be filed in a sealed clerk's record.
We STRIKE the July 18, 2022 sealed clerk's record. We ORDER Collin County District Clerk Lynne Finley to file proper clerk's records, i.e., an unsealed volume of the clerk's record with all of the unsealed documents of the case and a sealed volume of the clerk's record with the trial court's sealing order and the sealed documents WITHIN TEN DAYS OF THE DATE OF THIS ORDER.
We DIRECT the Clerk to send copies of this order to the Honorable Benjamin Smith, Presiding Judge, 380th District Court; to Lynne Finley, Collin County District Clerk; and to counsel for all parties.