Published: February 09, 2009 11:30 pm      

DA asks court to seal autopsy in Gates’ case

BEDFORD — The Bedford County district attorney late Monday afternoon requested a hearing to prevent the autopsy report in a 2001 Imler homicide from being released to The Tribune-Democrat.

Judge Thomas Ling will hear the request for a seal at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in Bedford County Court.

In accordance with a January ruling by the state Supreme Court opening such records to the public, The Tribune-Democrat renewed its request Friday for the report on Dana Gates.

She was beaten at her home in November 2001.

Blair County Coroner Patricia Ross said she will release the autopsy, but that “someone from the Gates family will be there when I let you see it.’’

“That’s not appropriate, for the reporter or for the family. From a public access point of view, that’s inappropriate,’’ said Melissa Melewsky, an attorney for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association in Harrisburg.

Since the January ruling, she said, the coroner is required by law to give copies of the autopsy reports – more than the spare checklist on cause and manner of death – to the public through the prothonotary. The high court allowed only limited exceptions.

A spokeswoman for the Blair County Prothonotary’s Office said the office has filings from deaths in which an inquest was conducted, but nothing more.

Melewsky said the release of records has been shown not only to assist police in cracking a case but also in exonerating the accused.

The Tribune-Democrat began its legal petition for the autopsy record on Jan. 30, 2002 – exactly two months after Gates was killed – when officials kept secret the details of the crime.

Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins maintains that the Gates death is not a cold case and that the autopsy record needs to stay secret for investigatory reasons.

Gates was critically injured at her home in Bedford County but died in Blair en route to an Altoona hospital, involving both counties in the murder case.