apparently without even any purported legal justification. From the Sacramento Bee:

A public hearing --- in which murder suspect Marco Antonio Topete was to be formally charged Wednesday in the slaying of a Yolo County sheriff's deputy --- was closed to just about everyone except the slain deputy's survivors and his law-enforcement colleagues [about 25 to 40 of them -EV].

Barred from the hearing were the defendant's wife, mother and sister, and members of the general public, including the media.... [D]eputies had locked the door and kept it locked during the hearing....

The Sheriff has now apparently admitted that the deputies' action "was 'a huge mistake.'" The judge in charge of the courthouse is quoted as saying that "The doors are supposed to be unlocked when court is in session. This kind of hearing should have been open to the public. There are no excuses. It shouldn't have happened."

Thanks to my student Jenny Macht for the pointer.