Judge seals list of items seized at Cooper home

Police have named no suspects in Cary woman's slaying

A judge has agreed to let Cary police keep secret an inventory of items officers took from the home of Nancy Cooper, a Cary woman found slain last week.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens signed an order sealing search warrants on Wednesday, as police still searched her home, cars and husband's car for clues in Cooper's slaying.

Cooper, 34, disappeared July 12. A walker found her body two days later, dumped near a storm drain in an unfinished subdivision just outside Cary.

Police obtained a search warrant July 16 to search Cooper's cars and the Lochmere subdivision home that she shared with her husband, Bradley Cooper, and two daughters. The search warrant also ordered Bradley Cooper to give up saliva or blood to help police obtain his DNA profile.

Stephens agreed to seal the documents, saying that "the release of this information will jeopardize the right of the State to prosecute a defendant to a fair trial or will undermine an ongoing or future investigation."

Nothing besides the judge's order is publicly available, including the officer's or prosecutor's explanation for needing to seal the warrant.

The News & Observer is considering options for intervening in the seal.

Cary police have named no suspects in Cooper's death.

In search warrants, police detail why they want to search a particular property or person. Police must also list everything seized during the search.

Sealing such records is a rare step that's becoming more common.

"In high-profile cases, this is an emerging strategy," said Jim Drennan, a professor of law with UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government.

For months after UNC-CH Student Body President Eve Carson was abducted and shot to death, a judge ordered search warrants in the case sealed. A judge also protected several otherwise public documents, such as her autopsy, for many months.

Local media outlets, including The News & Observer, intervened in those proceedings. The records were made public in recent weeks.

Such cases of making secret public court documents is alarming, said Hugh Stevens, a Raleigh first-amendment attorney who does work for The News & Observer.

"If you do it behind closed doors and don't say why, you cast some suspicion over the process," Stevens said.