A judge has agreed in part with the Arizona Daily Star, ruling that no further documents in a civil lawsuit against the University of Arizona and a convicted former assistant track and field coach will be sealed.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Charles Harrington ruled Thursday that no documents filed will be sealed “unless specifically ordered to do so in writing by the court.” All documents previously filed under seal will stay sealed with the clerk of the court, Harrington said, citing the cost and time of unsealing thousands of documents.
"The expenses would clearly be in the tens of thousands of dollars and very possibly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars of costs to the clients in this matter," he wrote.
The Star filed the motion in Superior Court last month, asking Harrington to modify two previous confidentiality orders and unseal any documents that had been previously filed under seal.
Former UA assistant track and field coach Craig Carter was sentenced to five years in prison in March after a jury convicted him of two counts of aggravated assault — one with a deadly weapon — in connection with his 2015 attack on former UA thrower Baillie Gibson. The two had been involved in a sexual relationship at the time of the incident. In May 2015, Gibson went to Carter’s office to try to end the relationship. Carter grabbed Gibson by the throat and, with a box cutter in his other hand, threatened to cut her face.
Carter confessed to the crime during an interview with UAPD detectives.
In November 2015, Gibson filed a lawsuit against Carter and the UA, saying the school had knowledge of the sexual relationship but failed to take action to protect her. Carter and his wife responded by countersuing Gibson for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Three months later, they filed an additional counterclaim against Gibson’s attorney, Lynne Cadigan, saying she had defamed them. Cadigan was the first to request that the documents be unsealed.
Because Carter was a state employee during the time period referenced in Gibson’s lawsuit, the state’s risk management division has been paying for his defense in the civil suit. Through mid-October, attorneys for the UA and Carter had billed the state nearly $2.06 million for work in the case.
