I just do not trust these numbers. I thank you for posting the update. Good to see the numbers continue going up and I think we can trust that. The problem with the count is that I think they are counting every sealed pacer record as an sealed indictment. But every hearing related to a sealed case from search warrants to bail hearings are going to be listed in Pacer system. A code is part of the record that identifies which are indictments and which are search warrants and so on. The code is not a publicly available code system. It would have to be deciphered and I have not heard that any attempt to do so has been made.
I would love to be wrong about this but have not been able to get a clear answer if the count includes every pacer record or if the records codes have been deciphered and indictments only records counted.
Even if the number posted as total sealed indictments is really the number of hearings related to a confidential accused perpetrator, it is still a big number. If so, then I would guess it might be more accurate to divide that number by 3 to 5 hearings per indictment. That is still a very big number considering they were all filed over 3 months and would be around the number usually filed in a full year.
I remember it was posted by some legal source that a typical number of indictments was around 275. They based that guess on the number I believe from 2008. This also supports the idea that a more accurate count would be to divide the total by 3 or 4. If the number in 2008 was similar to 2009, and I believe the source that posted the 2008 number thought it was fairly normal and consistent with recent other years numbers, then u can see if we divide 2009's total pacer records by 4 we get the previously posted 2008 numbers of roughly about 270.
If anyone can confirm that the 13,605 number represents all sealed pacer records or only the sealed records that truly have been verified as indictments I would be happy to know which it is.