Hearing set on Tribune request to unseal Bryan Stanley records

There's some local stir over a local murderer who will be released from jail soon was released from jail in March, but his records have been sealed so no one will know where or when.   

[Judge] Gonzalez approved Stanley’s release into La Crosse County during a hearing March 31, 2009. But she unexpectedly granted a request from Stanley’s attorney to seal all release details — including the date, address and treatment — under state mental health laws.

Stanley, then 29, shot custodian William Hammes, the Rev. John Rossiter and lay minister Ferdinand Roth Sr. at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in February 1985. Angered the priest had allowed girls to give Scripture readings during Mass, Stanley said he was a prophet sent to cleanse the church, according to Tribune archives.

“If you’re entitled to know, as a matter of public policy, where someone is living who 10 years ago may have had sex in high school with his girlfriend who was underage, I think you probably would want to know where a person who committed a triple homicide who suffers from mental health conditions is and what measures are taken to ensure that he continues on his path of recovery and maintenance,” [Tribune attorney Jim] Birnbaum said.

La Crosse Tribune

Can't say I disagree with Mr. Birnbaum. 

Background on Bryan Stanley murders:
Archived article - Part 1
Archived article - Part 2

More from La Crosse Library Archives.