FREMONT COUNTY, Idaho — Lori Vallow's attorneys want cameras banned from her court hearings. Last month, her attorneys filed a motion to request cameras be banned from the courtroom.
They said, during a hearing on Aug. 16, Court TV set up multiple cameras and microphones in areas not allotted for media. In the motion filed, Vallow's attorney said the cameras zoomed in repeatedly on Lori Vallow and could have potentially violated attorney-client privilege.
In a response, Court TV denied these claims.
Lori Vallow is the mother of Joshua "JJ" Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were reported missing in the fall of 2019 from Rexburg. Their remains were found on property belonging to Chad Daybell, Lori Vallow’s fifth and current husband. The couple is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Vallow's kids, as well as Daybell's late wife, Tammy Daybell, who died in October of 2019.
“In the good old days when I was prosecuting attorney or attorney general and cameras were very bulky and lighting had to be rather pervasive, it was intrusive and disruptive in the courtroom to have cameras there,” said Dave Leroy, former Idaho Attorney General, former Lieutenant Governor and a current attorney. “Still, perhaps today, maybe lawyers, and maybe even witnesses play just a little too much to the camera… but, all things being equal, cameras in the courtroom are basically, standard practice in today's world.”
KTVB is among 32 news organizations that have joined to oppose the motion to ban cameras from all future hearings in the Lori Vallow case.
In a response to the motion, the attorney representing the media, emphasized the importance of allowing cameras in the courtroom.
"The public's confidence in the criminal justice system grows when the courtroom is open to all, including those who cannot physically attend," according to the response.
“It would be atypical, generally speaking aloud without some very specific ledged and proved intrusion, or disruption or unfairness to one side or the other for cameras to be blocked in a courtroom today,” Leroy said. “At the Ada County Courthouse, we have a rule no cameras on the fifth floor, which is where the significant and serious trials are had, but with the permission of the judge with permission of the court administrator, cameras are brought into the courtroom all the time, generally speaking, it is entirely up to the discretion of the trial judge as to what goes on in that trial judge's courtroom.”
The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, September 15. KTVB will update you on what happens.
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