“Our criminal courts operate under a presumption of openness,” the appellate court wrote.
Murder-for-hire case against Philly businessman was wrongly kept from public view, appeals panel saysBoyke Budiarachman , former business partner of Keven Van Lam, , who is accused of hiring a hit man to kill his ex-associate over a deal that soured. Both men lived in Philadelphia, and for four months, all details of Lam's arrest had been shielded by the Westmoreland County courts.
For 10 days, after Boyke Budiarachman, 49, was shot to death outside a sushi restaurant in southwest Pennsylvania by a man dressed as a parking attendant, authorities would neither identify him, nor the suspect who sat in lockup for four months with nearly every detail of his case The opinion, written by Superior Court Judge Victor Stabile, noted that prosecutor never specifically asked that the case be withheld from the docket, nor did the local judge, Christopher Feliciani, offer any findings for why that extraordinary should step be taken.
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