After hearing a petition from the estate of recently deceased celebrity actor Gene Hackman and his (also recently deceased) wife Betsy Arakawa-Hackman bidding for a preliminary injunction to block public access to investigative files, photos and video footage from the scene, First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson delivered a mixed verdict.
The couple was found dead in their home in late February, weeks after each died from different maladies.
While Judge Wilson granted the preliminary injunction’s request to prevent photo or video footage directly depicting the bodies of Hackman and Arakawa-Hackman from becoming public, he denied the preliminary injunction’s request to keep private death investigation and autopsy reports, as well as photo or video footage of the Hackman residence or depictions of their animals, which would include one of their dogs found deceased in the residence in late February.
“The petitioner and the families of Mr. Gene Hackman and Ms. Betsy Arakawa-Hackman would suffer irreparable injury unless the court grants a preliminary injunction,” Wilson said at the Monday hearing, in relation to footage depicting their deceased bodies.
On March 14, personal estate representative Julia Peters filed the petition for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Office of the Medical Investigator and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office from releasing the information under the Inspection of Public Records Act.
In the petition, Peters argues Hackman and Arakawa-Hackman “placed significant value on and took affirmative, vigilant steps to safeguard their privacy,” and that photographic and video evidence collected the day their bodies were discovered are “shocking to the conscious” and should not be publicly released.
Kurt Sommer, a lawyer for the plaintiff, echoed this sentiment as well during the hearing.
“They took great pains to stay out of public life. They lived in a private, gated community. They lived very quietly in Santa Fe, and unfortunately, they died a very tragic death,” Sommer said. “They would not want to have their privacy invaded by having the tragic deaths exploited by the press.”
Sommer also noted concerns with releasing images depicting the interior of their home due to security concerns, and called criminal defense attorney Dan Cron as a witness, who testified that releasing photos of the Hackman residence could result in criminal activity on the property, such as break-ins, citing a case in which an incarcerated defendant’s home was made public and two burglaries took place, as well as incidents from last year where high-profile celebrities had their homes broken into, such as NFL players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Walker Boyd, Santa Fe County’s attorney, argued Cron’s testimony was merely speculative and not relevant to this case.
“Although he's certainly a very well regarded lawyer, [Cron] admitted that he has no information about particular recordings or photographs. In this case, he gave a story about a client that he had represented in the past whose house had been broken into,” Boyd said. “There's no indication that will happen in this case.”
The respondents in the case, which included Santa Fe County, the University of New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator and media interveners from CBS News and the Associated Press, argued the Inspection of Public Records Act should prevent the preliminary injunction from being granted.
“They are seeking to enjoin two state agencies, the alumni division of the University of New Mexico, and the County of Santa Fe, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department, for doing what they are statutorily required to do…which is to produce records upon request of public activities, and to do so as a routine part of their everyday job,” Boyd said. “It is a very unusual request for any person or entity or state to come to the court and say, ‘We're asking you, on behalf of our clients, to enter an order that would prohibit state entities from doing their statutorily required roles.’”
After issuing his verdict, Judge Wilson clarified when asked that any photograph or video in which the bodies of Hackman and Arakawa-Hackman are artificially blurred out to prevent them from being seen would be consistent with his ruling. Audio recordings will also not be blocked from public access.
