Court: Public entitled to see Senate candidate Ruben Gallego's divorce file

The public is entitled to see the divorce records of U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego — at least, most of them.

In a unanimous decision late Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals rejected claims by the divorced couple that a Yavapai County judge exceeded his authority in granting the bid by a conservative online publication to unseal the records of their 2016 breakup.

Ruben Gallego’s campaign press aide Hannah Goss, releasing a statement late Thursday that she said came from him and his former wife, blamed the lawsuit on Kari Lake, his Republican foe in the race for the U.S. Senate. It accused Lake of trying “to score a cheap political point — even if it means endangering the privacy and well-being of our young son.’’

But the lawsuit seeking to unseal the records came not from Lake but from The Washington Free Beacon. And while Lake clearly sees all this as being to her advantage — she has released social media posts about the divorce and the congressman’s attempt to keep the records sealed — Goss produced no evidence that the GOP candidate is in any way connected.

The new ruling is probably not the last word. While neither Goss nor the former couple’s attorneys would comment, there is likely to be an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.

An appeal may also seek an immediate stay of the appellate court ruling that the files — with certain redactions — be publicly available. That could delay final resolution past the Nov. 5 election.

Attorneys for the Beacon will fight that. They have made it clear they want this information released as soon as possible, as early voting started on Wednesday.

“At stake here is the right of the press to inform the public and voters’ rights to be informed about a candidate prior to the election, with time to digest and process the information,’’ lawyers for the Beacon told the court.

It’s not just about Ruben Gallego and his bid to move to the Senate. Kate Gallego is running for another term as Phoenix mayor. Both are Democrats.

What is in the documents, and what the former couple want to keep out of public purview, remains unknown. Their plea to the Court of Appeals itself was filed under seal.

The former couple, who were living in Maricopa County at the time, filed for divorce in 2016 in Yavapai County.

In the new ruling, appellate Judge Brian Furuya, writing for the court, acknowledged the two convinced a Yavapai County judge who handled the case to seal the records entirely. That judge found at the time that “the privacy interests of the parties outweighs the general open records policy.’’

The records remained sealed — as did even any evidence on a court docket — until the Washington Free Beacon learned of them and sought to view copies.

That’s when a different Yavapai County Superior Court judge, John Napper, ruled the records should be redacted and unsealed.

Furuya said Napper was correct in concluding in August that the original order sealing the records was improper.

Napper did agree to let Ruben Gallego and Kate Gallego provide a list of items that should be redacted before the files were made public.

The judge accepted some of them, which Furuya described as designed “to protect the privacy interest of their financial information and the best interests of their minor child.’’ But he rejected others, leading the Gallegos to seek appellate court review.

In the appeal, the two pointed to the 2016 decision to seal the records, arguing that this status quo should be maintained. Furuya, however, said the Arizona Rule of Family Law Procedure says that they, as the party opposing a motion to unseal, must show “overriding current or continuing circumstances that justify maintaining sealed status.’’

“Past circumstances are not relevant to their present objection to The Free Beacon’s request to unseal the record,’’ the appellate judge wrote. That means the 2016 order did not require Napper to make written findings about why he no longer found the order sealing the records appropriate, he said.

The bigger issue, said Furuya, is that Napper did not abuse his discretion when he rejected certain redactions sought by the couple.

“To begin with, the state of Arizona presumes court records are available to the public,’’ Furuya wrote. “The burden is on a party opposing a motion to unseal to demonstrate why the records should not be unsealed.’’

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In this case, the appellate judge wrote, that meant the couple had to show “continuing or new overriding circumstances to prohibit access to court documents or any portions thereof.’’

“They did not meet that burden,’’ Furuya wrote.

He pointed out that Napper did agree to some redactions — not all the Gallegos wanted — to protect the interests of their child “along with some of their financial information.’’

“The (trial) court properly exercised its discretion by narrowly tailoring what is to be withheld from public view for those legitimate purposes,’’ Furuya said.

Ruben and Kate Gallego said in their prepared statement Thursday night: “We have long put our child before all else and will continue to do so. It is shameful that Lake, her allies, and those who amplify her cruelty refuse to respect two people who are just trying to raise a beautiful boy together.’’

Lake has made the divorce a point in her campaign, even arguing that Ruben Gallego filed for divorce when Kate Gallego was nine months’ pregnant. The fight over the release of the records has only amplified the comments by Lake, who has consistently trailed him in polling.

“The people have a right to know what Ruben has done and who Ruben really is,’’ Lake said in an Instagram post. “What are you hiding, Ruben Gallego?’’

The Beacon has a website filled with stories critical of Democrats. It even has a list of “Enemies of Freedom,’’ including Barack Obama.

But there is no mention of Lake in the legal filings that the Beacon made with the Court of Appeals. Instead, a Beacon attorney said is is simply a matter of the public’s right to know.

“The Free Beacon seeks the release of court documents that reflect the character and behavior of a public figure holding and running for federal office, and one official who currently holds executive authority over one of the nation’s largest cities,’’ the attorneys told the court.

Lake, in her own social media posts, has denied any role in the fight to unseal the records.

“But Ruben’s reaction to it means that whatever is about to come out about his behavior during the divorce is very bad,’’ she said.

Ruben Gallego has already disclosed in a memoir that he was dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome after serving in the Marines from 2002 to 2006. That was before he proposed to Kate Widland at the 2008 Democratic Convention, where both were volunteers for the Obama campaign. They wed two years later, the same year he was first elected to the state House.

Four years later he won his bid for Congress.

He also wrote about the breakup, fueled not only by his PTSD but the anticipated arrival of a son.

“Eventually we both came to the point where we realized we had grown apart from each other in many ways,’’ Ruben Gallego wrote. “We separated when she was still a few months from giving birth.’’

Whatever the issues were between them at that time, they appear to have healed.

Kate Gallego, who has been Phoenix mayor since 2019, is more than his partner in the legal bid to keep the records sealed. She also is a political supporter.

“I know first-hand his commitment to building a brighter future for Arizona,’’ she said in a statement last December released by his campaign.

“We have real challenges facing our state that require a leader who is dedicated to fighting for working families and the most vulnerable,’’ she said. “He’ll do an excellent job working for all of us as our next senator.’’

Ruben Gallego is remarried, to Sydney Barron, who worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and now is employed by the National Association of Realtors.