By Marie McCain
The Cincinnati Enquirer

After acquitting former Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach last year, Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ralph E. "Ted" Winkler agreed to seal the court records of the case because Mr. Roach has a "right to get on with his life ... as though he had never been charged."

"This right does not belong only to Mr. Roach. Each citizen has the same right as every other," the judge said. "The majority must be deprived occasionally for the benefit of the minority, sometimes for a single person."

Filed Thursday in the 1st District Court of Appeals, the judge's comments are contained in a 14-page court-ordered explanation of his decision to seal the court proceedings of the Roach case.

A former Cincinnati police officer, Mr. Roach now works in suburban Evendale. He was found not guilty last year of charges that he negligently killed an unarmed man. He was also acquitted of charges that he lied about the shooting to investigators.

About a month after Judge Winkler ordered the court records sealed, the Enquirer sued to unseal the documents because it thinks the public should have access to them.

In September the appeals court, in an opinion authored by Judges Rupert A. Doan, Robert H. Gorman and J. Howard Sundermann Jr., Judge Winkler was ordered to provide "specific findings demonstrating that the proper balancing has taken place."

"I tried to be fair and do the best I can with the information I had," Judge Winkler said Thursday. "I feel the court records should stay sealed."

Mr. Roach's trial in September 2001 attracted national attention.

On April 7, 2001, then-Cincinnati Officer Roach shot and killed Timothy Thomas as the 19-year-old fled from police. The two men met as each turned a blind corner down a darkened Over-the-Rhine alley.

Mr. Thomas was not armed. But Officer Roach told investigators he thought the younger man had a gun. He later admitted that Mr. Thomas scared him and his gun went off.

Mr. Thomas' death was followed by days of rioting and civil unrest in Cincinnati.

E-mail mmccain@enquirer.com