COVINGTON, La. - After more than a decade of being hidden from the public, the divorce records of former District Attorney Walter Reed were unsealed Thursday, the result of a request by attorneys for WWL-TV.
The case file not only gives some insight into the split between Walter and Shawn Reed, but it contains a federal subpoena. Dated August 13, 2014, the subpoena requests the limited unsealing of the divorce file so federal prosecutors could present it to a grand jury.
Other known subpoenas have been issued to the Castine Center in Mandeville about a fundraiser Reed held held, to an attorney named Leo Hemelt who stood in for Reed at board meetings for St Tammany Parish Hospital and to local TV station WVUE.
The latest revelation of a subpoena came Thursday afternoon when 22nd Judicial District Judge William Burris unsealed the Reed divorce records. An attorney for WWL-TV asked for the information to be made public earlier in the week.
According to court clerks, both Shawn and Walter Reed agreed to it, after more than a decade of keeping the information hidden from the public.
The divorce records also shed light on the property they owned when they split in 2004, including the Covington home they once shared. It's currently on the market for sale for $2.875 million dollars. It went to Shawn in the divorce.
The federal subpoena shows federal prosecutors are digging into all aspects of the former DA's life.
Assistant US Attorney Jordan Ginsburg requests all the documents related to the divorce itself, all financial statements and all public records requests related to the case.
The subpoena is dated August 13,,2014 and it asks the St Tammany Clerk of Court to present the information to the grand jury August 28.
That means it was served during the firestorm of media coverage that the DA was involved in, and about a month after Reed announced he would not seek re-election.
