Court: Release bidder names in disputed memorabilia auction

Photo of Lady Justice by Dev Kulshrestha, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of winning bidders’ names from a county prosecutor’s office’s disputed sports memorabilia auction.

The Bergen County prosecutor’s office conducted the auction in 2014 using items seized in a criminal action. Only about one-quarter of the items seized turned out to be genuine.

A private citizen had sought the names of winning bidders and was initially rejected by a state appeals court.

But the Supreme Court held Wednesday that the request should have been granted. It said details of a public auction of government property shouldn’t reasonably be expected to remain private.

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