April 1 (UPI) — A New Mexico judge partially blocked photos and other evidence from being released into the investigation of the death of actor Gene Hackman and his wife.
On Monday, District Judge Matthew J. Wilson ruled during a hearing that some records showing Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, must be placed under seal from public view.
It stopped the disclosure of some evidence including photos depicting the bodies, police bodycam footage and autopsy report photos. It also prevented release of the death investigation and autopsy reports.
The couple, who married in 1991, were found dead on Feb. 26 at their home on Sunset Trail in the Sante Fe Summit district of the city, about four miles northeast of the downtown state capital city.
Wilson, however, did deny a previous preliminary injunction ban on release of other records like audio, videos not depicting the late couple and other autopsy information.
“Injunctions are a harsh and drastic remedy, which should issue only in extreme cases of pressing necessity,” the judge said. “It is not enough that the party seeking injunctive relief merely claim irreparable harm.”
It was reported that the two-time Oscar award-winning actor and Arakawa died of natural causes after initial suspiciouns when they were found in separate parts of the home with their dogs, some of them deceased as well.
Kurt Sommer, the Hackman estate attorney, contended Monday that releasing video and photos of the bodies by the sheriff’s office would violate the deceased couple’s privacy.
“For anything like that to be out in the public, any entity can use it however they want in perpetuity,” Susan Madore, Hackman’s longtime publicist, told the court Monday. “He would have never agreed in his life for that to happen, so why would we think he would agree to it in his death?”
Hackman retired from acting in 2004 on the advice of his cardiologist saying he’d had enough of the entertainment business and moved to Sante Fe with Arakawa. It was reported he had heart disease and suffered complications caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
“There simply is no legitimate government purpose for releasing this material at this time,” Sommer stated.
According to Sommer, Hackman and Arakawa “took great pains to stay out of the public light in later years and said how it would be counter to their wishes to publicly release sensitive imagery.
