Records to be unsealed:

Probable cause document must be redacted before release to public, media

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Thursday orders county prosecutors to redact a contested court document in the “Serial Street Shooter” case so it can be unsealed and released to the public.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered county prosecutors to redact a contested court document in the “Serial Street Shooter” case so it can be unsealed and released to the public and the media.

The document, called a Form IV, is a record of the probable cause gathered by law enforcement to refer a case for criminal charges. They are routinely and automatically released to the media and public in most cases.

But in this case, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office convinced Superior Court Judge Scott McCoy to seal the document. A coalition of media outlets, including The Arizona Republic, filed a motion to unseal the document in the interest of transparency.

At a hearing Wednesday, Deputy County Attorney Patricia Stevens, asked McCoy to deny the request, arguing that it would jeopardize the ongoing investigation.

On May 8, Phoenix police announced that Aaron Saucedo was suspected of being the Street Shooter, who may have killed as many as nine people over the course of a dozen shootings during an 11-month period in 2015 and 2016.

But police and prosecutors provided little information as to why they focused on Saucedo, who so far has been charged with one murder and is being held in a Maricopa County jail.

In her motions to the court and in her argument Wednesday, Stevens cited a Republic story as proof that the media should not have access to investigative documents. The story related how Republic reporters had shown Saucedo’s photo to a surviving victim who said he had not picked that person out of a po-