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Posted on 08/19/2004 7:04:42 PM PDT by pittsburgh gop guy
Thursday, August 19, 2004 By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A judge has scheduled a hearing at which the executors of the estate of the late Sen. H. John Heinz III must show cause for keeping the will sealed.
In an order Monday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Frank J. Lucchino scheduled the hearing for Sept. 14.
Two newspapers, The Los Angeles Times and The Morning Call of Allentown, have petitioned Allegheny County courts to unseal Heinz's last will and testament.
"There is no indication in the file that this estate requires special treatment that justified maintaining the blanket sealing order currently in place," the plaintiffs' attorney, Scott E. Henderson of Pittsburgh, wrote in his petition in July.
Henderson withdrew from the case last week. Los Angeles attorney Kelly Sager remains as counsel for the newspapers.
Heinz's family had the record sealed April 5, 1991, a day after the senator and six other people were killed in a mid-air collision over a suburban Philadelphia schoolyard.
An attorney representing the Heinz estate said the family would fight to keep the record sealed.
"This is an unwarranted invasion of privacy and we will vigorously contest," Paul J. Bschorr, of the New York law firm Dewey Ballantine, said yesterday of the effort to open the will.
The newspapers filed suit July 9, seeking to obtain information from the records and asking the court to order the family to show cause for keeping them closed.
The executors' petition in 1991 vaguely explained the request for sealing them, saying, "such action would be appropriate in the circumstances of this decedent's estate and would not, in any manner, impede the proper administration thereof."
That request was granted by then Common Pleas Senior Judge Nathan Schwartz.
Heinz, a Republican senator from Fox Chapel, was heir to the Heinz food fortune. He is survived by three sons and his wife, Teresa, who, in 1995, married Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president in the November election.
"This petition must be considered in the context of the tremendous public interest in the estate, in which potential first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry is reportedly the primary beneficiary," attorneys for the newspapers wrote in their brief to Lucchino.
Heinz Kerry is in control of more than $500 million in trust funds from the Heinz estate. In addition, she oversees three charitable organizations with assets of more than $1 billion.
The records would, the plaintiffs said, "provide valuable insight into the extensive philanthropic activities of Mrs. Heinz Kerry, and answer questions about whether those activities bear any relationship to the presidential campaign of [John Kerry]."
The newspapers argue that Schwartz did not have the authority to seal the Orphans' Court Division file, citing the precedent that such records generally are available to the public.
Bschorr answered in his brief that Schwartz's order cannot be vacated by a parallel court because no exceptions had been filed within 30 days.
"Now, 13 years later, in this politically charged 2004 presidential election year, the commonly owned The Los Angeles Times and The Allentown Morning Call have teamed up to petition this court to unseal the records of the estate proceeding," wrote attorneys for the Heinz family.
Bschorr's brief noted that the proceeding was concluded and confirmed in 1998 without objection. Because the newspapers were not party to the initial proceeding, Bschorr wrote, and do not claim any "extraordinary cause," they cannot claim that their rights were overlooked or that they were deprived.
Thats about the size of it!!
Why all the secrecy? Why won't Kerry release his war records?
Maybe the will contains a clause the takes everything back if she marries a Democrat...
Thursday, August 19, 2004 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Judge Frank Lucchino has scheduled a Sept. 14 hearing on whether the estate record of the late Sen. John Heinz should be unsealed. He shouldn't bother; the record should be opened now.
Two newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and the Morning Call of Allentown, petitioned Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on July 9 to have the record unsealed, and the Post-Gazette intends to join their effort today.
Pennsylvania probate records are public information. Both the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution give the press and public access to judicial records. On April 5, 1991, however, one day after the tragic death of the senator in an air crash, attorneys for the executors of Mr. Heinz's estate filed to impound the probate record. Judge Nathan Schwartz ordered that the record be sealed.
The motion from the estate's attorneys gave no reason for keeping the record from public view and the judge did not justify why the court was taking such drastic action to impound the will. In fact, we cannot imagine what justification there would be.
Although the estate record should have been public from the start, the senator's widow, Teresa Heinz, is now Teresa Heinz Kerry, the spouse of the Democratic nominee for president. The Times and the Call argue that there is public relevance in the estate, as it plays out in Mrs. Kerry's considerable philanthropy, which could influence the future policies of her husband.
For us, though, it is a simpler matter: this is a public document that should never have been withheld from the public 13 years ago. In fact, we're sure that the Kerry campaign will be unaffected by the release of its contents.
Open access to the courts and court records is necessary for public confidence in government. An impounded public record, without a compelling overriding reason, in effect closes off part of the government from the public.
That is what the sealed Heinz estate is doing in this election year. The record needs to be opened now.
____________________________________________________________________
The (leftwing) PG even wrote this editorial urging the will to be unsealed. My only concern is that Judge Frank Lucchino is a dem hack and might be reached out to by Kamp Kerry to keep the will sealed.
For the record, wills are public documents. It is one reason why people use trusts: privacy.
Burgh thing ping
I disagree. The number commonly accepted is somewhere in the $1 billion range; no matter what the real amount is, it's still a huge sum of money. The public knowing the exact figure won't really change anyone's mind about her wealth.
That being said, I think there's something else that's being really well hidden. And I would love to know what it is.
sKerry's is the most secretive would-be administration we've seen since...The 'Toon's.
>Maybe the will contains a clause the takes everything back if she marries a Democrat...
I doubt it - Senator Heinz was pretty much a Dem, and would now be considered a RINO in the finest Specter/Snowe tradition. I met him once, summer of 1989. He ripped on Dan Quayle. Heinz did have that "rich-boy" charm though.
I kinda think of TayRayZa as the Angela Lansbury character in The Manchurian Candidate (the original - not the current piece of crap that is in theaters)
"That being said, I think there's something else that's being really well hidden. And I would love to know what it is"
Oh cripes, it's probably something about the late Sen.Heinz having some wild and crazy affair with the young Jim McGreevy!
Tax records
Medical records
Senate attendance records
I agree.
Why all the secrecy over her tax return forms too? What's hidden there? Support of questionable organizations?
This woman revealed a secret on the highest order (her alleged almost-abortion-turned-miscarriage), Yet she maintains that for reasons of privacy, she cannot disclose her tax returns.
Very shady.
Here's what blows my mind: Heinz dies in about the most unexpected manner possible and yet by the next day his family had not only decided to ask attorneys to seal the estate but they went into court and got the deal done.
Please make a choice from one or more of ther following:
1) Black Helicopters
2) Gay Boyfriends
3) Shot a Kennedy
4) Black Love Child
5) Skull & Bones
6) Bilderberg
7) One World Goberment
8) Biosphere
9) Black Gay Boyfriend
10) Gay Boyfriend shot a Kennedy
Yeah, that got my antenna going, too. Would this be an automatic procedure when there is that kind of money involved? Something already decided ahead of time, "just in case?"
Do the rich-elite (Kerry the common-man)not have to abide by the law?
Make the will public NOW!
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It's a 'Burgh
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People laugh at Dan Quayle, but his legacy lives on. Or don't you remember that he is the man who, right in my hometown of San Francisco, began the "family values" debate?
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