LINCOLN - A Logan County judge has been assigned to hear a case filed by three newspapers to gain access to documents in the Beason slayings case.

The Pantagraph, the Herald & Review in Decatur and Springfield's State Journal-Register have filed a petition asking that search warrants and other records in the Gee case be open. Judge Charles Feeney III has been assigned to hear the media request at a hearing Thursday in Lincoln.

Although some details of the killings surfaced with the release of the indictments filed last week against brothers Christopher J. Harris and Jason L. Harris of Armington, many questions remain about what links the Harrises to the deaths of Rick and Ruth Gee and three of their children.

Reporters have been told that applications for search warrants in the Gee case and others are sealed and not open to the public. A 2007 opinion by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan determined that the applications and the information filed after warrants are served are public records.