7th Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri, Clay County Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICAL

A written in rem motion showing good cause may seek public access to a confidential application and warrant before the return is filed; the motion must be addressed to and filed in the division of the judge who ruled, docketed and stored with the application, and the ruling must be entered on the docket sheet with a clear reference to that application.

On written motion and for good cause shown, the court may order that an application and resulting warrant being treated as confidential records be opened to the public before the return is filed. Such a motion will be in rem, styled, for example, “In re Search Warrant Application, January 1, 2004, 6A,” and be addressed to and filed in the division in which the judge who ruled the application sits. Any such motion shall be docketed on the division search warrant docket sheet and be stored with the application in question. Rulings thereon shall be made on the docket sheet clearly referring to the application in question.

WARNING

An interested party may listen to or request a trial recording under the division clerk’s supervision, subject to restrictions in specified cases; other requesters in those cases receive a redacted transcript at their expense.

Pursuant to Supreme Court Operating Rule 5.11, under the direction and supervision of the responsible Division Clerk, an interested party may listen to or request a copy of the audio recording of proceedings of trial that is maintained by the Circuit’s IT department with FTR Gold except when a Defendant is charged with sexual assault, domestic assault, stalking, or forcible rape. In such cases, identifying information of the victim shall not be released to the public or be provided a copy of the audio recording of the proceeding unless the requestor is a party of attorney in the case. With respect to any other requestor and at the requestor’s expense, the proceeding will be provided in redacted transcript format.

WARNING

Filing Information Sheets are confidential; the clerk must file them in case-number sequence and either store them separately from the case file or destroy them after entering the information.

The Filing Information Sheets are confidential records. The clerk shall file the form in case number sequence and store it separately from the case file or shall destroy the form upon entry of the information.

WARNING

The Circuit Clerk centrally stores denied applications and applications with filed returns; granted applications remain in the division until a return is filed and docketed, and each issued warrant is stored with its successful application.

Denied applications and applications to which a return has been filed will be centrally stored by the Circuit Clerk. Granted applications shall be held in division until a return is filed and docketed. Each warrant issued shall be stored with the successful application.

WARNING

Search warrant docket sheets are public; denied applications are confidential, and granted applications and warrants remain confidential until a return is filed, after which the granted applications, warrants, and returns are public.

Division search warrant docket sheets are public records. Denied applications shall be treated as confidential records. Granted applications and resulting warrants shall be treated as confidential records until a return is filed. Thereafter, granted applications, the resulting warrants, and returns are public records.