Court authorizing the publication of certain files in Gene Hackman Death Death Investigation

Santa Fe, NM (AP) – A court paid the way on Monday to the publication of the investigation files of the death of Gene hackman And his wife, Betsy Arakawa, as long as the representations of the deceased couple are blocked.

The decision of a New Mexico judge allows the possible release of the video of the Camera of the Exfered Police Body and other investigation documents, including images of the couple’s dead dog. All Photos, video and documents of the investigation had been limited to a liberation by previously, Ordinance of the temporary court.

“There will be no representation of one or the other body in a video production” or a photographic image of the bodies, said the judge based in Santa Fe Matthew Wilson in response to the lawyers’ questions on his decision.

A representative of the Hackman family domain had urged a new-mexic judge to keep the files sealed to protect the constitutional law of the family to privacy.

The partially mummified remains of Hackman and Arakawa were Found in their santa fe house On February 26, when the interview and the security guards presented themselves to the home and alerted the police.

The authorities said that Hackman, 95, has died of a heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s disease about a week after his wife’s death of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is a rare disease and transmitted by rodents. Hackman was perhaps not aware that Arakawa, 65, was dead.

One of the couple’s three dogsA mixture of kelpie named Zinna, was also found dead in a box in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs were found alive. A state veterinary laboratory equaled the dog’s death to dehydration and famine.

The authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances of the couple’s death and described their conclusions during a press conference on March 7 without publishing the most related written and photographic files.

The law on open-mexical open files blocks public access to sensitive images, including representations of corpses. Experts also say that certain medical information is not considered a public file under the law on the inspection of public files.

By trying to block the publication of the files, the representative of the Domaine Julia Peters had underlined the possibly shocking nature of the photographs and videos in the survey and the potential of their dissemination by the media. The Hackman family estate has also sought to block the possible publication of autopsy reports by the medical investigation office and investigation reports on the death of the Santa Fe Sheriff.

A lawyer for the succession, Kurt Sommer, argued during the hearing on Monday that the couple took great difficulty in staying outside the public light during their lives and that the right to control the use of their names and their similarities should extend to their succession in death.

Most of the investigations on deaths by the police and autopsy reports by medical investigators are generally considered to be public archives under the law of the State in the spirit of ensuring transparency and responsibility of the government.

The Associated Press, CBS News and CBS Studios intervened in this area. Gregory P. Williams, a media lawyer, told the judge that they had previously declared in the judicial files that they would not disseminate images of the couple’s body and would blur the images to obscure them in other files.

“There is certainly a public interest to know how their death was surveyed and knowing how it was managed,” said Williams.

Susan Madore, an advertisement that has worked with hackmans for years, said the couple subject to live in Santa Fe Because it gave them anonymity. Hackman retired in the early 2000s.

Arakawa had no children, while Hackman is survived by three children of a previous marriage.

During the hearing on Monday, a lawyer for Hackman’s son and daughters underlined the possible traumatic effects of the release of conversations on deaths in the videos of the police of the police body.

Scot Sauder, lawyer for the state medical investigator, told the judge that autopsy reports for Hackman and his wife do not yet exist and do not include information on health care. He can take months for autopsy reports to be completed.

Confidentiality will probably also play a role when the couple’s succession is settled. According to documents from the homologation court, Hackman signed a testament updated in 2005, leaving her succession to his wife while the will she signed that year directed her succession. With the two dying, the management of the succession is in the hands of Peters.

Without public trust documents, we do not know who the beneficiaries are and how the assets will be divided.

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The writer of the Associated Press Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.