A district court judge’s ruling finds certain information can be unsealed about the case of Mason City TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit, who vanished in 1995, but the ruling protects other details that could be important to the ongoing investigation.
Attorneys representing private investigator Steve Ridge filed a motion in February arguing that the warrant regarding GPS data for two vehicles connected to John Vansice should be opened since Vansice died in December and any ongoing investigation into his involvement in the matter has now ceased.
County Attorney Carlyle Dalen resisted the motion, saying opening up the warrant would give the public facts and circumstances in the case that could possibly hurting the investigation.
District Senior Judge James Drew in his ruling says some federal and state courts have specifically recognized a court’s authority to seal, but in those cases, only affidavits were sealed, not the entire file.
He ordered the unsealing of the application, endorsement, search warrant, and return notice since they do not contain information that would compromise the investigation, but an affidavit filed by the Mason City Police Department in support of the application for the search warrant will remain sealed since it contains information regarding times, items found at the scene, the specific location of those items and other observations of the scene made by officers, which would only be known to the perpetrator and law enforcement.
