An Allegheny County judge could decide next week whether the will and estate records of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III should be made public.
Lawyers for the estate told Common Pleas Judge Frank J. Lucchino on Friday that unsealing the financial records -- and revealing how the popular Republican's vast wealth was distributed after his 1991 death in a plane crash -- would jeopardize his family's privacy and security. They said some information could even make survivors vulnerable to identity theft.
Attorneys for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette said centuries of legal opinions give the media the right to view all court records and that sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and bank account numbers could be withheld.
"The burden is on the Heinz estate to explain why (the records) should be sealed," attorney Charlie Kelly said.
Yesterday was the first time lawyers argued the merits of the case since The Los Angeles Times and The Morning Call of Allentown first asked the judge to open the records in July. The Trib, Post-Gazette and Philadelphia newspapers later joined as plaintiffs.
The newspapers first argued that opening the records could shed light on the charitable activities of the senator's widow, Teresa Heinz, and whether she was using the Heinz family assets she inherited to bolster the presidential campaign of her current husband, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
The estate delayed a decision on opening the records before the November election by filing a series of objections. After Kerry lost the election to President Bush, the out-of-town newspapers withdrew from the case.
Estate attorney Gregory Jordan argued yesterday that since Kerry lost, there was no longer a public interest in the records.
"With this election thing behind us, there's no reason to compromise the privacy of these people," he said.
Lucchino ordered the lawyers to submit final written arguments by Wednesday. He said he would rule on the issue shortly after that. Link
Do you suppose that Teresa was really referring to this case when she uttered that statement that resulted in her telling a reporter to "shove it"?
"We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," Heinz Kerry