A New Mexico judge ruled Monday that video taken inside Gene Hackman’s home during an investigation into the actor’s startling death last month can be released to the public — but only with redactions that remove any images showing the partially mummified bodies of Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa.
The judge also ruled that audio captured by sheriffs’ deputies responding to the scene, including investigators’ conversations about what they witnessed, can be released. And while the autopsy reports for Hackman and Arakawa have not yet been finalized, the judge said all autopsy photography and still images showing the bodies at the scene will be sealed. Any written autopsy reports, including toxicology results, can be released to the public if they do not violate patient confidentiality, the judge said.
Hackman’s three adult children — Christopher Hackman, Elizabeth Hackman, and Leslie Allen — along with Arakawa’s mother and the couple’s estate all fought the release of the officer lapel video inside the home, including the audio. They argued such release would violate their right to privacy and cause a security concern for the estate. They also made a novel argument that the images would violate the couple’s right to publicity, meaning their right to control their name, image, and likeness.
A lawyer representing media outlets seeking the investigation records under New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) argued that his clients were “sympathetic” to the relatives’ concerns and had no intention of showing images of the couple’s decomposing bodies. The lawyer said his clients, the Associated Press and CBS, agreed that IPRA “requires” the redaction of images showing deceased individuals.
“I’m enjoining the county from disclosing visual depiction of bodies,” Judge Matthew Williams said Monday afternoon after a nearly three-hour hearing. He said the ruling applied to images of the couple’s bodies “in any format whatsoever.” He said video in which the bodies were “blurred” would be “consistent with my order.”
During the hearing, Hackman’s longtime publicist said the Hoosiers star was intensely private during the 27 years she worked for him. She said he and Arakawa moved to Santa Fe in the Nineties because Hackman wanted to live “an artistic life” far away from the Hollywood spotlight. She said Hackman would only agree to two hours of publicity for the movies he acted in and once purchased a plot of land next to a garbage “dump” because he wanted a place to ride his bike in seclusion.
“He wanted the privacy of being able to ride his bike without anyone following him or observing him,” publicist Susan Madore, an executive at Gutman Associates, testified. She said Arakawa had called her personally after the real estate purchase because “she wanted me to be aware if anyone called asking why Mr. Hackman lived at the dump.”
Madore added that in the months leading up to the couple’s deaths, CBS had requested an interview with Hackman that was denied. She said the outlet initially planned to proceed with the news feature even without Hackman’s participation. “When I told Gene and Betsy, they were horrified,” Madore said. The publicist said she asked CBS to stop pursuing the project, and they ultimately obliged.
Before Judge Williams issued his ruling, lawyers for Hackman’s relatives and estate urged the court to put all of the investigative materials off-limits. “I don’t believe that the press has any sort of vested interest in this case other than exploiting these deaths, these tragic deaths for personal profit or gain,” Kurt Sommer, a lawyer for the estate argued. Before calling Madore to the witness stand, Sommer elicited testimony from a criminal attorney not affiliated with the case to support the estate’s claim officer lapel video released to the public could create a security concern. The legal expert, Dan Cron, said Santa Fe has a “significant drug problem,” and the release might give thieves a “blueprint” for a crime. He said such video would show the contents of the house, including fine art, and “the most vulnerable access points for burglars to get in.”
The lawyer representing the media outlets called that argument “speculative” at best. A lawyer for the county likewise told the court that sealing the video to protect certain contents of the home would set a “troubling” precedent.
“There is a public interest [the estate and relatives] need to override,” Gregory Williams, the lawyer representing the media parties, argued. “The public interest is in public records, [and the] performance of public duties by state officials and county sheriffs. There certainly is a public interest in the passing of the Hackmans. Mr. Hackman was a well-known individual. There was worldwide coverage. There is certainly a public interest in knowing how their deaths were investigated and how that matter was handled.”
The battle over the public records started shortly after Hackman and Arakawa were found dead in their home in their gated community of Santa Fe on Feb. 26. Officials quickly said it appeared the couple had been dead for some time. A week later, officials announced that their investigation determined Arakawa, 65, died first, possibly as early as Feb. 11. Her cause of death was Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a rare but deadly rodent-borne disease. The same officials said Hackman, 95, succumbed to heart disease and “advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” most likely days or even a week later, on Feb. 18. They said Hackman was in such an “advanced state of Alzheimer’s” that it was “quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased.”
According to probate court documents obtained by the AP, Hackman signed an updated will in 2005 that left everything to his wife. Arakawa, meanwhile, signed her own estate documents the same year, leaving everything to him. While a request is pending to appoint a trustee to administer the couple’s assets, a representative from the Sommer Udall Law Firm is representing the estate’s interests. Without any trust documents made public, the AP reports it remains unclear who the beneficiaries are and how the assets will be divided.
From Rolling Stone US
