Stuck in Byzantine Limbo

Two years ago, a Guilford County district court judge seized a former News & Record reporter’s notes, sealed them, and then issued a gag order. Now, the same judge is obstructing efforts to overturn her ruling, the paper’s attorney said in a court filing last month. 

Just last year, District Court Judge Ashley Watlington-Simms denied a request to get an audio recording of the hearing in which she ordered bailiffs to seize reporter Kenwyn Caranna’s notes. She also told Caranna not to speak or write about anything she had observed in Watlington-Simms’ juvenile courtroom that day in 2023. 

As The Assembly previously reported, her actions appear to run afoul of two state laws. Legal experts said she violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s prohibition against prior restraint, or the suppression of information a news organization has obtained. The court considers it “the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.” 

Mike Tadych, the attorney representing Caranna and the News & Record, had sought the audio recording so he could dispel any factual disputes in his motion to vacate Watlington-Simms’ gag order and get Caranna’s notes back. (Tadych has also represented The Assembly; Caranna has since left the News & Record.) Because the judge denied his request, Tadych hasn’t filed that motion and has now been trying to appeal her ruling on the audio recording. 

Watlington-Simms has made that nearly impossible, Tadych said in a July 1 petition he filed with the North Carolina Court of Appeals. That’s because Tadych says Guilford County court officials have blocked his attempts to order the transcript of last year’s hearing, and Watlington-Simms has refused to rule on a motion giving him more time. Watlington-Simms did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

That means Tadych is no closer to challenging the constitutionality of Watlington-Simms’ gag order and her decision to seize Caranna’s notes than he was when this all began. And it reflects the reality that court officials often bypass state laws about access when it comes to juvenile court proceedings. Last year, Durham County’s abuse, neglect, and dependency court effectively barred anyone involved in child-welfare cases, including parents, from discussing their cases with the media. That appeared to be in response to The Assembly’s three-part series with WBTV. 

Civil Rights Corps, a Washington, D.C. advocacy organization, filed a federal lawsuit against Durham District Court Judge Doretta Walker and Sheriff Clarence Birkhead, alleging they had blocked the organization’s staff from monitoring dependency hearings. 

Tadych said he is frustrated at the alleged obstruction. 

“We remain disappointed that Kenwyn and the News & Record were placed under a gag order and the property of the reporter and the paper were seized without due process of law,” Tadych said last week. “All we’re trying to do is gather the requisite information to have another court review that decision based on all of the information available.” 

Closing the Court

The legal fight began on July 28, 2023. Kenwyn Caranna had spent the day in Courtroom 2D, observing the proceedings for a story she had been working on about juvenile court. Nine juvenile cases were called that day, she said in an affidavit. 

Neither Watlington-Simms nor any other court official asked people not involved in the cases to leave the courtroom, Caranna said. Watlington-Simms closed the courtroom for one case, and Caranna left with everyone else. She returned when Watlington-Simms opened the courtroom back up. She was never told she couldn’t take notes, Caranna said in her affidavit. 

Late that afternoon, Watlington-Simms noticed Caranna and asked her to identify herself. Caranna did so, telling the judge she was there monitoring the court for a future story she was working on, she said in the affidavit. 

Watlington-Simms told Caranna that she was going to consult with the “Chief Judge,” presumably then-Chief District Judge Teresa Vincent, who has since retired and works as a commissioned emergency judge. When Caranna asked Watlington-Simms if she could consult with an attorney, the judge said no.  

Watlington-Simms soon returned and told Caranna that she was under a gag order. An unidentified attorney asked Caranna if she had taken notes. When Caranna said yes, Watlington-Simms ordered a bailiff to seize and seal her notes. Caranna was told she could appeal the ruling. 

“Judge Watlington-Simms said that people coming to court were typically screened and that those before the court were not given the opportunity to object to my being there or ask that their hearing be closed,” Caranna said in her affidavit. 

Watlington-Simms issued a written protective order on August 2. 

North Carolina’s juvenile courtrooms, like most courts, are open to the public unless a judge closes them. Though the law keeps juvenile records confidential, experts say the public still has a right to know how judges conduct themselves. Watlington-Simms justified seizing Caranna’s notes as necessary to protect children’s privacy, but used a law that has nothing to do with juvenile court proceedings. She also argued journalists should notify court officials of their presence before going to a juvenile court proceeding. However, journalists are not required to identify themselves to enter a courtroom that is open to the public. 

Tadych planned to file a motion in Guilford District Court asking a judge to overturn Watlington-Simms’ gag order. But to do that effectively, he said he needed the audio recording of the July 28, 2023, hearing. Watlington-Simms had disputed several aspects of Caranna’s account, including that Caranna had asked to consult with an attorney. An audio recording would dispel any factual disputes, Tadych had argued. 

It took a year before a hearing was scheduled on July 23, 2024, to consider Tadych’s request for the audio recording. 

At the hearing, Tadych told Watlington-Simms that he had no plans to make the audio recording public and would agree to a protective order prohibiting him from sharing it with Caranna or the paper. Still, Watlington-Simms denied his request. Part of her justification was based on objections from other attorneys who represented juveniles at the July 28, 2023, hearing.

Tadych said in court that he would appeal. 

Complication and Confusion

It should have been simple. Watlington-Simms issued her written ruling on the audio recording on Oct. 3, 2024. A few weeks later, on October 25, Tadych filed his official notice of appeal. 

From there, he had 14 days to order a transcript of the July 23, 2024, hearing. Once he got it, he would have a month to file a document that would include the transcript and any other records the state appellate court would need to review his appeal. Then both sides would file briefs outlining their arguments. It would normally take at least six months before the court would issue a ruling on Tadych’s appeal. 

But what happened next was anything but simple.

First, Tadych said he couldn’t get any information on whom he needed to contact to order the transcript. 

On Halloween, Tadych received an email from a court official telling him that “for the appeal to be heard it needs to be filed in civil court.” That was confusing to Tadych. He was appealing Watlington-Simms’ ruling to the state Court of Appeals. Tadych said in his petition that his paralegal sought clarification but was sent to a different court official, who said that since “rulings in the juvenile case were the subject of appeals, the matter would have to be opened as a new case, filed” in civil superior court to appeal Watlington-Simms’ ruling. 

Tadych repeatedly and unsuccessfully reached out to Lisa Johnson-Tonkins, then Guilford County’s clerk of superior court, for answers. Then, on November 26, 2024, he filed a motion seeking more time to order the transcript. He included proposed orders for a judge to sign that would grant Tadych’s request, the petition said. 

A few weeks later, on December 18, 2024, Paige Creech, deputy clerk for the juvenile division, sent an email saying that the proposed orders were sent to Watlington-Simms to sign. But Creech said Watlington-Simms had left a note saying it would be inappropriate for her to sign the orders because Tadych had appealed her ruling on the audio recording. She said the “application of my signature or any district court judge’s signature would be inappropriate especially without a formal hearing.” 

Tadych said he received no further instructions from court officials. Now, he wants the Court of Appeals to intervene and force Watlington-Simms to rule on his request so that he can appeal her ruling. 

The Court of Appeals has not yet issued a decision on the petition. 

Meanwhile, Caranna continues to wait for this all to be resolved. It hasn’t been easy, but she said she is trying to stay positive. 

“It’s been aggravating, but I have no choice but to believe the court system will, in the end, offer me justice,” she said. 

Disclosure: Assembly reporter Michael Hewlett has worked with both Kenwyn Caranna and Dimon Kendrick-Holmes at the Winston-Salem Journal and briefly worked at the Greensboro News & Record in the late 1990s.

Michael Hewlett is a staff reporter at The Assembly. He was previously the legal affairs reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal. You can reach him at michael@theassemblync.com.