That filing is a response to a writ of mandamus filed by The Associated Press and over 20 other media companies last month requesting that Idaho’s Second Judicial District vacate the nondissemination order.
Bryan Kohberger, the PhD student accused in the brutal massacre of four University of Idaho students, is voicing his disdain for the media's coverage of his ongoing murder case.
Kohberger, 28, and his public defender Jay Weston Logsdon classify the nature of media coverage of the case "that has occurred thus far" as "pervasive and grotesquely twisted" in a court document filed on Thursday.
That filing is a response to a writ of mandamus filed by The Associated Press and over 20 other media companies last month requesting that Idaho’s Second Judicial District vacate the nondissemination order.
Lawyers for the news organizations argue in a petition supporting that writ that the amended order "prohibits protected speech about a newsworthy event."
Soon after those media companies filed that writ, Kohberger filed a request to respond to this separate legal matter as a non-party intervenor.
The judge approved that motion and Kohberger and Logsdon filed an brief on Thursday, which was then obtained by Inside Edition Digital.
That brief argues against vacating the amended dissemination order, saying that it is not overreaching or prohibitive of free speech because it is "based on what the Magistrate Court believed to be necessary given the media coverage of the case and the need to preserve the right to a fair trial."
INTERVENOR BRYAN KOHBERGER BRIEF IN RESPONSE TO PETITION
Earlier this week, the memo summarizing the in-chambers zoom conference Judge Megan E. Marshall had with prosecutors, Logsdon and lawyers for the witnesses and families of the victims in the case was unsealed by the court.
That memo, which was obtained by Inside Edition Digital, explains the crux for the decision to amend the initial order.
It reads in part, "Judge Marshall explained that the purpose for the meeting was in response to what she has been seeing and hearing from various media-sources. She has tried to ignore most media covering the case since she will be presiding over the preliminary hearing. This case has garnered national and international attention. This is a high-profile case, and she wants to remind all attorneys not to engage in any conduct that would interfere with a fair trial."
That memo also states that Shannon Gray, the lawyer for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, accused prosecutors of releasing information to the media.
The lead prosecutor later denied this allegation and said he is "concerned about the ability to impanel a jury and have a fair trial."
A lawyer whose identity and client in the case are both redacted calls out Gray in the meeting for his interactions with the media and advises him to "exercise restraint."
UNSEALED MEMO SUMMARY OF MEETING REGARDING AMENDED NONDISSEMINATION ORDER
The preliminary hearing in the case is still 15 weeks away, having been scheduled for late June.
Kohberger is expected to be formally charged with four counts of first-degree murder at that time in connection to the deaths of Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20.
The accused murderer has yet to enter a plea to any of those charges, but the public defender assigned to represent him following his arrest in Pennsylvania said at that time that Kohberger informed him that he expects to be exonerated at trial.
