Seven New York City news outlets brought an Article 78 proceeding Friday in the Appellate Division, First Department, demanding that Acting Justice Maxwell Wiley (See Profile) release sealed records in the trial of Pedro Hernandez, the alleged killer of Etan Patz, and cease shutting his courtroom to the public.

Wiley has refused to allow confession videos of Hernandez to be released and copied, and the judge conducted most of the interviews of prospective jurors in secret and sealed the transcripts, the petition states.