The Arizona Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to unseal years-old divorce records between U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.
The records were set to go public Oct. 17 unless the Gallegos seek and successfully obtain a stay from the Arizona Supreme Court, which would keep the documents sealed.
The appellate court decision, written by Presiding Judge Brian Furuya along with judges James Morse Jr. and David Weinzweig, said Arizona law presumes court records are open and the Gallegos failed to justify why their 2016 divorce records should remain sealed. The court also rejected the Gallegos’ claims that certain redactions they requested should have been accepted by the lower court.
The Gallegos needed to show “overriding circumstances continue to exist or that other grounds provide a sufficient basis for keeping the record sealed,” the opinion said.
The decision came months after the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative Washington, D.C., news organization, asked the Yavapai Superior Court in January to open the sealed divorce records . Judge John Napper ruled in the publication’s favor, but the Gallegos appealed.