Home >  Local News

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

By Barbara White Stack, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

State Superior Court this week reversed a Cambria County judge's decision to close a juvenile court hearing and reiterated its Feb. 26 ruling that such proceedings regarding abused and neglected children are open to the public.

The appeals court told Cambria County Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III that he must conduct a hearing to decide whether there is sufficient cause to exclude the press and public from juvenile court proceedings concerning the children of Darlene and Michael Ference of Johnstown.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had sought access to the hearings after the Ferences pleaded guilty in 2001 to abusing their four children over a decade. Despite receiving numerous complaints about the children's treatment, the Cambria child welfare agency took years to intervene.

Krumenacker refused to admit the Post-Gazette to the hearings, ruling that they are closed. The Post-Gazette appealed that decision and a decision by a Westmoreland County judge to close hearings regarding the surviving children of John and Marcia Bright, whose 8-year-old daughter, Annette, was shot to death in July 2001.

In its Feb. 26 ruling in the Bright case, Superior Court said the public has a constitutional right to attend the hearings because the Pennsylvania state constitution guarantees, "All courts shall be open."

The court also said, however, that a judge could close a hearing if a request were made and the judge determined that a secret hearing would serve a compelling governmental interest. That, the court said, could be a desire to protect the privacy of the children.

The Post-Gazette has attended thousands of juvenile court hearings regarding abused and neglected children in Allegheny County. Last year, all six juvenile court judges who routinely heard those cases in the court in Pittsburgh permitted access.