Weld County judge denies request for an investigation into media leaks

A Weld County judge has denied a motion to investigate media leaks in the case of Frederick’s Christopher Watts, who made national headlines after he was arrested last month on suspicion of murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife and two young children.

John Walsh and Kathryn Herold, Watts’ defense attorneys, filed a motion Aug. 29 asking the court to have “the government” investigate extrajudicial statements that could prejudice a jury in the case.

The motion included a number of news articles citing “sources close to the investigation,” including one that cites a “Frederick police source” and contains information still not available to the defense attorneys.

While the defense had not yet received any discovery by Sept. 4, “a source from the Frederick Police Department continues to feed the media materially prejudicial, extrajudicial ‘information’ about the ongoing investigation,” Walsh and Herold argued in a supplement to their motion.

However, Weld County District Judge Marcelo Kopcow wrote in the denial, filed on Sept. 10, that the defense failed to show any court violations or evidence of the defendant suffering from prejudice.

Watts was arrested shortly after his wife and two daughters went missing. He is charged with five counts of firstdegree murder, one count of firstdegree unlawful termination of pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.

The bodies of 34yearold Shanann Watts, 4yearold Bella and 3yearold Celeste were found on property owned by Watts’ former employer, Anadarko Petroleum Co. Shanann Watts was 15 weeks pregnant with a boy, who her family said would be named Nico.

District Attorney Michael Rourke hasn’t violated the court order on extrajudicial statements and has taken steps to limit the spread of information as the case captured the attention of national media and armchair detectives, Kopcow states in the denial.

The defense is asking the court to reconsider its denial, saying in a Sept. 12 filing that the bar for taking “reasonable care” to prevent the spread of prejudicial information should be higher for a case of this nature.