Oakland County's prosecutor seeks an emergency court order barring interviews by potential witnesses in the murder trial.
A media-related issue arose at the start of the Oakland County first-degree murder trial of Tucker Cipriano and friend Mitchell Young. They're accused of fatally beating Tucker's father, Bob Cipriano, with a bat and seriously injuring the defendant's mother and brother.
Mike Martindale of The Detroit News reports from court, where jury selection began Monday:
An Oakland Circuit Court judge issued a gag order Monday against witnesses involved in the highly-publicized trial. . . .
Members of the Cipriano family have recently conducted interviews with reporters in which they expressed hope that Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper would offer a plea agreement to the pair for second-degree murder to spare the survivors and others the ordeal of going through a trial. Cooper has adamantly opposed any form of a plea — other than to the first-degree murder charge. . . .The prosecution contended that Greg Cipriano, the defendant’s brother, has conducted a campaign to manipulate the news media in an effort to pressure the prosecutor’s office to provide a plea agreement. Cooper said the gag order was necessary because pretrial publicity could taint prospective jurors.
Judge Shalina Kumar approved the gag order, but exempted the attorneys in the case, Martindale writes.
Greg Cipriano, an uncle of 20-year-old Tucker Cipriano. says Cooper has a "desire to put this in the national media attention, and it's at the cost of our family," according to Hank Winchester of WDIV. He began speaking out last week.
