Country singer Naomi Judd’s family filed a court petition Friday to seal police reports and records made during the investigation of her death, which occurred in April.
According to The AP, they filed the petition in Williamson County Chancery Court in Tennessee, claiming the video and audio recordings taken of relatives swiftly following Judd’s death could cause “significant trauma and irreparable harm”If they were publicly released.
The petition was filed on behalf of Larry Strickland, the singer’s husband, and her two daughters Wynonna and Ashley. The AP obtained the document with the family’s permission.
Reasons the family cited for sealing the records include their right to privacy regarding the disclosure of Judd’s medical records. According to Tennessee’s public records law, the police have the right to withhold records during an ongoing investigation.
In a statement submitted with the petition, Strickland said he was unaware that “his interviews with law enforcement were being recorded and that he shared personal and private information to help the investigation.
Ashley Judd claimed she was in “clinical shock, active trauma and acute distress”When she spoke to law enforcement, she stated that she didn’t want these records, including audio and video, to be permanently kept in the public domain and haunt her family for generations.
The petition also stated that Tennessee media outlets have already filed public records requests involving Judd’s case.
Ashley Judd spoke with Diane Sawyer “Good Morning America”For an emotional segment, May 12, she spoke out about how her mother used a firearm in order to kill her and that she found her when she was on a routine daily visit at her Tennessee home.
“I’m tasked with an exceedingly difficult task in disclosing the manner of the way my mother chose not to continue to live,”Through tears, she spoke. “And I’ve thought about this so much because once I say it, it can’t be unsaid. And because I don’t want it to be part of the gossip economy, I will share with you that she used a weapon. Mother used a firearm. So that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but we understand … if we don’t say it, someone else is going to.”
Wynonna shared her thoughts on Saturday, May 28, in an Instagram post.
“There is so much happening in the world right now. So before I sat down to write this, I thought, ‘No…I just don’t know what to say.’ Then, I heard the words from my life coach asking me, ‘What do you know?’ And I began to cry,”She wrote.
“WHAT DO I KNOW?? I DO know, that the pain of losing Mom on 4/30 to suicide is so great, that I often feel like I’m not ever going to be able to fully accept and surrender to the truth that she left the way she did. This cannot be how The Judds story ends,”Wynonna continued.
The public memorial was held at Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday May 15.
