Date Published: June 27, 2006   

Lawyer for coroner asks to keep search warrant secret

The Associated Press

The attorney for York County's coroner wants to keep a search warrant related to his client's arrest on drug charges from public view.

Coroner Doug McKown, 37, of Clover, faces three drug charges, including cocaine possession and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was arrested in May.

"Affidavits and search warrants are filled with opinions," said McKown's lawyer Jack Swerling, who also said there are portions of the warrant he has not seen himself.

But Terry Plumb, executive editor of The (Rock Hill) Herald, said the document involves a well-known public official who had a "very important, responsible position in the community."

"It lays out why someone was arrested. And in a free society people have a right to know that," Plumb said in a story on the paper's Web site Tuesday.

Swerling filed the motion with York County magistrate judge Dick Watkins. A hearing on Swerling's motion has not been scheduled.

---

Information from: The Herald,