Circuit Judge Quashes Defense Attorney's Request for Murdered Brothers' Educational Records

BRADENTON – The build-up to the trial involving the murder of two Palmetto brothers at their family's place of work recently saw a dispute involving requested private school district records on the victims–which the defendant's attorney has argued are necessary to his trial preparation–having been tentatively decided in favor of the district.

Circuit Judge Diana Moreland

The dispute began last year, when Devon Chandler's defense attorney, Franklin Roberts, filed the motion in court after Chandler was charged with first degree murder for Khasem and Faares Yousef (in addition to robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon). Roberts, who wants to avoid a death sentence for Chandler by calling for a life sentence, told Circuit Judge Diana Moreland that his lack of personal knowledge about the victims puts him in an unfavorable position.

With that lack of knowledge, Roberts argued that prosecutors would be able to give the jury victim impact statements about the brothers and do so without facing a rebuttal from the defense. Victim impact statements are personable information about the victims that are often used to generate empathy from jurors.

To that end, the Manatee School District and State College of Florida were served with a subpoena requesting school records of the two victims; however, it was found that the process through which Roberts submitted the subpoenas violated the Federal Educational Records Privacy Act.

School Board attorney Mitchell Teitelbaum

Known as FERPA, the law allows parents to have a degree of power over who can access their child's educational records. The order to quash the motion, issued by Judge Moreland, cited Florida Statues Section 1002.22(2)(d), which states that not only students, but parents of students have "the right of privacy" with respect to students' educational records. Legal counsel for Buthania and Raed Yousef, the victims' parents, immediately made a motion to quash the subpoenas after they were served.

In addition, Moreland's order noted that the Manatee School Board's argument for opposing the served subpoenas was due to the procedure used to serve them. School board attorney Mitch Teitelbaum argued that no justification was made for the subpoenas being served 'Instanter' (immediately) without the 10 days notice as normally required by law, and because the State Attorney was not notified before the district and SCF were served, the procedure was in violation of FERPA.

"There is a procedure to follow for requesting student records as per federal law," said Teitelbaum.

The trial is set for June 2017.