Hearing to be held Friday on whether to make Todt family homicide warrant public
A hearing on whether the arrest warrant for Anthony Todt, a Colchester physical therapist who police say confessed last week to killing his wife, children and family dog in Celebration, Fla., should be made public is scheduled for Friday, according to an Osceola County Court clerk.
Two Florida media outlets — the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and the WFTV LLC television station — filed a motion Tuesday asking the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Osceola County, Fla., to unseal the affidavit for an arrest warrant that led police to arrest Todt on Jan. 13 and find the bodies of his family in the home they rented.
The next day, Jan. 14, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office filed a motion to seal the affidavit for the search and arrest warrant for Todt, court records show.
"The order was entered without notice to the news media or an opportunity to be heard on the issue of closure," and did not provide lawful reasons to support sealing the documents, the motion alleges. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
Todt was charged on Jan. 15 with four counts of premeditated homicide and one count of animal cruelty in the deaths of his wife Megan Todt, 42, their children Alek, 13, Tyler, 11 and Zoe, 4, and the family dog, Breezy.
Police had gone to the home to serve Todt a warrant stemming from an FBI and Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General investigation in Connecticut. An affidavit unsealed Jan. 15 alleges that Todt committed health care fraud for years to Connecticut Medicaid and private insurance companies.
Todt appeared in court on Jan. 16 represented by a public defender and did not enter a plea. The judge approved a request to waive the reading of the charges.
The motion filed Tuesday states that records from that appearance are either fully redacted or unavailable on the public docket. The newspaper and station said in the motion that keeping the records sealed violates Florida law. The hearing will be held at 1:15 p.m. Friday in Osceola Court.
The case has left the community reeling in Colchester. Friends and family of the Todts are planning to hold a vigil in memory of Megan and the children. It originally was scheduled for Saturday but, as rain was forecast for that day, the event was moved to 6 p.m. Friday on the Colchester Town Green. For more information, visit the event page on Facebook at bit.ly/TodtVigil.
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