With jury deliberations ongoing, a U.S. District judge overseeing the copyright infringement trial over the 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines” appeared to take the extraordinary step of closing the downtown Los Angeles courtroom to the public.
An attorney for soul singer Marvin Gaye’s family, which is suing the writer-performers of the song, told reporters that jurors had submitted two questions, which are typically read and answered on the record in open court.
But U.S. marshals providing security refused to allow anyone other than attorneys for either side into Judge John Kronstadt’s courtroom, saying “the judge wants it that way.”
They also refused to accept a Los Angeles Times reporter’s note for the judge objecting to any closure of the courtroom and ordered the gaggle of reporters covering the trial off the seventh floor of the courthouse, where the case was being heard.
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