A court hearing

slated to debate an ex-wife's request for police investigative files compiled

on her husband was abruptly closed Friday morning.

Superior Court

Judge Johnnie L. Caldwell Jr. briefly closed the courtroom after Dr. Kenneth

Lazarus' attorney claimed that debating the issue in court would violate

his client's privacy.

Caldwell granted

the motion despite protests from Jill Karen Lazarus' attorney and The

Citizen.

"To have

a judge close a hearing on a case involving the Open Records law is unheard

of," said the publisher of The Citizen, Cal Beverly. "According

to the Georgia Supreme Court rulings, any closure of a hearing must first

involve a notice and a hearing on the closure motion itself. No such notice

or hearing occurred here. I have no idea what Judge Caldwell based his

unusual ruling on. The very notion of a judge closing a courtroom and

expelling the public from an Open Records case is troubling."

Ms. Lazarus

has filed a new open records request for all Peachtree City police records

compiled in the investigation of her former husband for child molestation,

even though he was eventually cleared of those charges by a grand jury.

The new request

asked for essentially the same information: an "a complete, unabridged,

and without redactions" copy of the Lazarus investigation file.

The grand jury

declined to indict Lazarus, returning a "no bill," indicating

there was insufficient evidence to support the charge filed by his ex-wife

during child custody proceedings after the divorce.

The open records

litigation was brought by the city of Peachtree City, which sought a temporary

restraining order to forbid the records from being released until a full

hearing on the matter could occur. In light of the second request, which

is similar to the first, the city will have to file another petition seeking

a temporary restraining order.

Ms. Lazarus'

attorney, James W. Smith, has also filed a motion to recuse Judge Caldwell

from the open records case. Caldwell has also presided over the Lazaruses'

divorce case.

In the motion

to recuse Caldwell, Smith accuses the jurist of showing bias when he called

Ms. Lazarus' child molestation claims "frivolous."

"Judge

Caldwell's characterization of the petitioner's claims as 'frivolous'

indicates a bias towards petitioner," the motion states.

"The entire

purpose of this open records request represents an attempt to draw adverse

publicity to myself, and in my opinion it's completely non-newsworthy,"

Dr. Lazarus told The Citizen Monday. "Another aspect it demonstrates

is the poor judgment and journalistic avarice of this particular journalist.

This journalistic witch hunt is also damaging to my children." Lazarus

said that his wife lost the custody fight and that he has custody of the

children from the marriage.