Las Vegas Sun
Judge Elissa Cadish questions attorneys after a grand jury indicted Dr. Dipak Desai Friday, June 4, 2010. Cadish will rule on Friday, Jan. 26, 2018, if search warrants related to the Oct. 1 shooting should remain sealed.
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 | 6:30 p.m.
Related news
Metro Police on Friday afternoon will present its case as to why search warrants related to the Oct. 1 shooting should remain sealed, Clark County District Court officials said Wednesday.
District Judge Elissa Cadish on Wednesday ordered a 1:30 p.m. hearing with Metro representatives and its proposed witness or witnesses to state their case, officials said.
After the confidential hearing, which will be recorded and sealed, Cadish will rule whether the documents can be made public, officials said.
This comes after a lawsuit filed by local and national news organizations, including the Associated Press, pushing to unseal the Metro warrants.
Authorities have maintained that Stephen Paddock, 64, acted alone when he rained bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay on Oct. 1, killing 58 and injuring hundreds attending a country music festival, before shooting himself in the head.
In a hearing last week, Metro argued that charges could be filed in connection with the shooting. Cadish didn’t order the records released that day, but noted that she was considering reviewing them privately before, which she’s since done, officials said.
The previous week, a federal judge made public FBI warrant documents, one which said, "Paddock planned the attack meticulously and took many methodical steps to avoid detection of his plot and to thwart the eventual law enforcement investigation that would follow" the shooting.
In a Friday news conference, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said that charges were being considered for a person under FBI investigation in connection to the shooting but said he could not expand, only noting that Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, was not expected to be charged.
Metro that day released an 81-page preliminary report of its investigation, which provided the most comprehensive account of the massacre to date, its timeline, physical and electronic evidence recovered, and a profile of Paddock, who Lombardo reaffirmed was the only shooter.
The Metro report and FBI documents did not shed light on a possible motive of the shooting, something Lombardo and the FBI have said hasn’t been determined.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
