Gene Hackman's Estate Wins Temporary Order to Seal Bodycam Footage, Autopsy Photos
A New Mexico judge is blocking, at least temporarily, the release of any photos or video showing the partially mummified bodies of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa-Hackman after the actor and his wife were found dead in their Santa Fe home last month.
The new order from Judge Matthew J. Wilson lasts until a hearing on the matter set for March 31. It specifically bars the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and the state's Medical Examiner from fulfilling any public records requests seeking photos or officer 'lapel video footage' showing either of the couple's bodies or the interior of their residence in Santa Fe. It also prohibits the release of any autopsy or death investigation reports or any bodycam footage showing 'any deceased animals at the Hackman residence.'
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The judge said state and county officials should appear at the March 31 hearing in person if they plan to argue that a permanent injunction against release of the material 'should not be issued.'
Julia Peters, who represents the couple's estate, is behind the push to seal the records on privacy grounds. She has cited Hackman's discreet and 'exemplary private life,' his family's constitutionally protected right to grieve privately, and the gruesome nature of the photographs and body-cam footage recorded when police entered the home.
While New Mexico law typically blocks the dissemination of potentially sensitive images of citizens' deaths as well as medical records, the nature of Arakawa's death — her main cause of death was hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory disease usually transmitted by mice — could potentially present a public health concern and thus be available under the state's Inspection of Public Records Act.
At a March 7 press conference, officials said they believed Arakawa, 65, died first, possibly as early as Feb. 11, the last day she was seen alive. They said Hackman, 95, succumbed to heart disease and 'advanced Alzheimer's disease,' most likely days or even a week later, on Feb. 18. They said Hackman was in such an 'advanced state of Alzheimer's' that it was 'quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased.'
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