SJC asked to hear case on broadcasts from Quincy court

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Two attorneys today asked the Supreme Judicial Court to step in and impose restrictions on the WBUR-FM project that broadcasts some Quincy District Court hearings over the Internet.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Varsha Kukafka said that if the SJC allows opencourt.us to post a hearing involving alleged human trafficker Norman S. Barnes, they will be revictimizing the teenage girl he is accused of kidnapping and forcing into prostitution.

Barnes has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was indicted last month on 10 counts of deriving support from a minor in prostitution, seven counts of aiding and abetting in the commission of statutory rape, four counts of statutory rape, four counts of dissemination of visual material of a child in a state of nudity, and three counts of posting a child in a state of nudity.

“Posting the hearing on the Internet that includes ... her private information and … lurid details of what she went through is a further assault,’’ Kukafka told the SJC justices. “That should not happen.’’

Justice Ralph Gants said from the bench that if the SJC adopted the thinking of WBUR’s critics, “we are going to be ordering BU not to publish. … How is that not prior restraint?”

Defense attorney John Fennel urged the SJC to treat the recordings like a court record, which would give the SJC the power to ban WBUR from posting a recording without violating the First Amendment protection against prior government restraint.

But banning WBUR from adding a hearing video to its archives could easily violate the First Amendment ban on prior restraint by the government on the press, according to the university and WBUR.

Moreover, BU attorney Lawrence S. Elswit said, there is no difference between what WBUR captures in the courtroom and the information provided to readers of “mainstream” news outlets like The Boston Globe.

“The irony is that much more identifying information is already out there on the Internet by virtue of traditional news media,’’ Elswit told the SJC. “Once the information is out there, it’s out there for the world to see.’’

The SJC is being asked to decide who controls the video recordings made by WBUR inside the courtroom with the explicit backing of the court system.

A decision by the SJC is due in the next several weeks.

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.