Sealed documents questioned in charges against Alexandra Eckersley
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Jul. 8—A number of documents under seal in the case against a homeless woman accused of abandoning her newborn in the freezing cold on Christmas night 2022 may be improperly being withheld from the public, a judge recently ruled.
Judge Amy Messer gave the prosecution and defense 10 days to review at least 13 documents, which eventually could be made public.
"The Court finds that maintaining all of these documents under seal may be contrary to the law," Messer wrote.
Eckersley, 27, is accused of abandoning her infant son after giving birth to him in a tent near the West Side Ice Arena in Manchester late on Christmas night, then misleading rescue workers about the tent's location in temperatures below 20 degrees.
Eckersley, the adopted daughter of former Red Sox pitching great Dennis Eckersley and his second wife, Nancy, is charged with reckless conduct, second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Messer made her ruling after the New Hampshire Union Leader filed a petition for records to be unsealed in the case, which is set for trial later this month. A final pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
During a hearing in March, Eckersley appeared in Hillsborough County Superior Court with her 1-year-old son, who appeared in good health. Public defender Kim Kossick told multiple media outlets that Eckersley had been fully reunited with her son after she completed required residential treatment.
Prosecutor Shawn Sweeney with the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office told Messer during a hearing in March he felt the appearances were a violation of professional conduct rule 3.6, which involves pre-trial publicity. He later filed a motion seeking "an order prohibiting additional trial publicity," which remains under seal. Kossick objected to a motion to seal the document.
Sweeney asked for the Union Leader's request to be denied "to protect legitimate privacy interests and the integrity of the judicial process."
The order prohibiting additional trial publicity was "sought to limit damage to the integrity of the criminal trial process by prohibiting statements that 'have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter,'" Sweeney wrote.
Kossick disagreed.
"The defense did not violate Rule 3.6 and does not intend to violate Rule 3.6," she wrote.
Messer said the argument of not being able to hold a fair trial is more often brought up by the defendant.
"The Court can summons a large jury pool and carefully screen out jurors who have been influenced by pretrial publicity. This Court regularly seats juries in high profile cases and questions them regarding any prejudice or bias she might have as a result of such media exposure," Messer ruled.
Messer presided over the high-profile trial of Adam Montgomery, who was convicted of murdering his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony.
Around midnight on Dec. 26, Eckersley gave birth to the premature baby boy and believed she had miscarried, according to her attorney. She led first responders on a frantic search for the child's whereabouts, her attorney said.
Kossick has said Eckersley was suffering from a medical emergency. She argues Eckersley committed no crime.
According to court filings, Eckersley did not disclose where the tent was because her boyfriend, George Theberge, had told her not to tell police the location of the tent.
Theberge pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County Superior Court last summer to charges of endangering the welfare of a child, reckless conduct and witness tampering.
