Attorneys for The News & Observer have asked state Attorney General Roy Cooper to make dozens of court documents sealed Tuesday available for public inspection.

Patrick Murphy, a prosecutor in Cooper’s office, asked a judge Tuesday morning to seal several Johnston County impaired-driving court cases that a reporter had asked to review not 24 hours before.

The State Bureau of Investigation began reviewing DWI cases this spring at the behest of the local district attorney to determine whether the cases were improperly dismissed.

Criminal court files are public records, and according to state statutes, can’t be withheld even if they become part of a criminal investigation.

Cooper is out of town at a conference. His staff is trying to contact him about the request.

Hugh Stevens and Amanda Martin, attorneys for The News & Observer, reminded Cooper of the statute he helped draft when he served as a member of the state General Assembly. Stevens and Martin wrote to Cooper, saying his staff violated the law by asking for a seal.

“In addition to utilizing a secret motion and secret hearing to obtain an order that facially violates the letter of the Public Records Law, [your staff] also failed to adhere to the spirit of the Law and to federal and state case law, both of which require the consideration of alternatives less Draconian than sealing,” Stevens and Martin wrote in the letter.

Superior Court Judge James Ammons of Fayetteville came to Smithfield early Tuesday morning and sealed the court files, a half-hour before a reporter arrived to review the records. Ammons said in his order that the release of those records could jeopardize the SBI investigation if individuals with knowledge of possible criminal activity were disclosed.

Monday, a reporter asked Johnston County Resident Superior Court Judge Tom Lock if the Attorney General’s staff sought to seal the records that attorneys for The News & Observer would like to be heard on the request.

The Attorney General’s staff arranged for Ammons to travel to Fayetteville early Tuesday morning to sign the order. Ammons had no other business in court that day and signed the order in judge’s chambers.

Lock was in the Johnston County courthouse and available to hear the request.

Stevens and Martin told Cooper that his staff worked hard to keep these records out of the hands of a reporter.

“Your subordinates went to extraordinary lengths — including departing from traditional courthouse protocol — to obtain the enclosed order just in time to prevent the newspaper’s reporter from reviewing dozens of criminal files,” they wrote.