Court Filing
Filed: 06/04/2025 11:06:40 Fourth Judicial District, Ada County Trent Tripple, Clerk of the Court
By: Deputy Clerk-Waters, Renee
IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF
THE STATE OF IDAHO, IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF ADA
STATE OF IDAHO,
Plaintiff, Case No. CR01-24-31665
V.
ORDER REGARDING ALLOCATION OF
BRYAN C. KOHBERGER, RESERVED MEDIA SEATING
Defendant.
The Court received two requests for reserved seating for representatives of " the media " at trial. Specifically, the Court received a letter on May 28, 2025, from counsel for a " Media Collection " asking-among other things to ensure that someone from the " media " is always able to be present at trial, that a seat for a pooled media member be reserved. On May 29, 2025, the Court received a separate letter from a local AP journalist asking that a pooled seat for a member of " text " media be reserved.
The asserted rationale for both requests is a concern that the " concert " style ticket reservation system that will be utilized might result in days when no member of the media is allocated a seat. The competing requests highlight part of the problem with reserving seats for representatives of the " media. " Idaho courts do not recognize who or what constitutes media.
Indeed, in today's world, there are unending people and organizations that can make a claim to being media. In addition to traditional or mainstream broadcast media, there are newspaper writers, radio news media, independent investigative journalists, true crime podcasters, video bloggers, YouTube streamers, Instagram posters, Facebook page writers and publishers, other social media " influencers " found on an endless number of internet locations, as well as a plethora of other curators, commenters and self-publishing journalists. Trying to obtain a consensus on who should
ORDER REGARDING ALLOCATION OF RESERVED MEDIA SEATING-PAGE 1
be eligible to be a pooled representative is impossible. Providing reserved seating for endless representatives of various " media " types, even assuming those within each such category could agree to whom their representative should be, would result in most all the limited available seats being spoken for such that the interested members of the general public are unable to attend.
In addition to the problem of defining the media and getting them to all agree on the designated pooled representative, the requests for reserved seating presume a problem that almost certainly will not come to being. Specifically, it seems unlikely that on any given day, every single media member, no matter how defined, fails to " wins " a seat.
Nonetheless, this case does have an unusual twist that does not present in most other cases with a lot of media attention. Specifically, the community most impacted by these murders, the citizens of Latah County also the county financially responsible for the costs of trial-are unable to easily attend because the case was transferred to a venue hundreds of miles away. Given this, and in part addressing the broader concern for media attendance expressed in the letters to the Court, one pooled seat for a member of Latah County local media of wide circulation will be reserved. The local broadcasters, newspaper and radio journalists located in Latah and adjacent Nez Perse Counties (" Local Media ") must agree to a local representative to attend each day (it need not be the same person each day). Any Local Media member utilizing this seat must agree act as a pooled journalist for all media members.
The Local Media must provide a designated list of representatives who will use the seat during trial to the Trial Court Administrator (TCA) before the start of the trial. Any person on the list must agree to pool his / her work. The TCA will provide a badge or other document that must be used to gain admission, together with government issued photo identification, to prove the person is on the list of Local Media provided to the TCA.
ORDER REGARDING ALLOCATION OF RESERVED MEDIA SEATING – PAGE 2
IT IS SO ORDERED.
4 DATED this day of June 2025.
Steven J. Hippler Administrative District Judge
ORDER REGARDING ALLOCATION OF RESERVED MEDIA SEATING – PAGE 3
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on 6/4/2025 I served a true and correct copy of the
ORDER REGARDING ALLOCATION OF RESERVED MEDIA SEATING
WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, JR.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
VIA EMAIL: paservice@latahcountyid.gov
ASHLEY JENNINGS
SENIOR DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
VIA EMAIL: paservice@latahcountyid.gov
JOSHUA D. HURWIT
SPECIAL DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
VIA EMAIL: paservice@latahcountyid.gov
JEFFERY D. NYE
SPECIAL ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
VIA EMAIL: jeff.nye@ag.idaho.gov
MADISON ALLEN
SPECIAL ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
VIA EMAIL: Madison.allen@ag.idaho.gov
ANNE TAYLOR LAW, PLLC
ANNE C. TAYLOR
VIA EMAIL: info@annetaylorlaw.com
ELISA G. MASSOTH, PLLC
ELISA G. MASSOTH
VIA EMAIL: emassoth@kmrs.net
IDAHO STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE
FIRST DISTRICT PUBLIC DEFENDER
JAY W. LOGSDON
VIA EMAIL: jay.logsdon@spd.idaho.gov
BICKA BARLOW
Pro Hac Vice
VIA EMAIL: bickabarlow@sbcglobal.net
TRENT TRIPPLE
Clerk of the Court
By: Bini Wat Deputy Clerk 6/4/2025 11:07:31 AM
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE