But what happened with the James Aloysious Wieseler case that was filed a year ago is even more rare for this reason: Everything about it was kept from public view by a judge’s order, until Friday.

Immediately after the criminal sexual conduct case was filed on Aug. 18, 2006, Blue Earth County District Court Judge Norbert Smith ordered that the probable cause portion of the charges against Wieseler be kept secret. Smith also ordered that “all subsequent documents filed” remain sealed to the public. The only exceptions in Smith’s order were Wieseler’s attorneys and county prosecutors.

During his 24 years as a judge, Lyon County District Court Judge George Harrelson said he can “count on one hand” the times where he’s issued a similar order. Harrelson, who is the chief judge for Minnesota’s Fifth Judicial District (which includes Blue Earth County), said each order was made to protect child victims in sexual assault cases.

“I think it’s safe to say it happens very rarely,” Harrelson said.

What made Wieseler’s case even more rare was a decision by court administrators, based on Smith’s order, to remove a record of the case from the court’s public access computer system. So anyone searching Wieseler’s name on the public access computer wouldn’t have known he had been charged with, and pleaded guilty to, felony charges involving sex with children.

That’s something that should only be done in extreme cases, such as charges relating to national security, said Mark Anfinson, a media attorney.

“Then you don’t even know what’s going on with the case,” Anfinson said. “It destroys any possibility of public accountability and oversight and that just isn’t proper.”

Some questions were raised Friday about whether Smith’s order required court administrators to go that far, said Judy Besemer, Blue Earth County court administrator. Smith’s order was lifted Friday by District Court Judge Kurt Johnson, who had taken over the case, after a request was filed by Assistant Blue Earth County Attorney Pat McDermott.

The Free Press had requested the file be opened more than a year ago, and renewed that request this week in a letter to Johnson.