Who's the leak from the courthouse? My guess is Judge Phelan. The five-season arc of The Wire will begin and end with him.

Earlier in the season, the lawyer Levy commented that he was expecting a lot of business from Marlo's crew. (With the Barksdale crew all dead or in prison, he probably needs it!) In Episode 9, Clay Davis confirms that Levy and his courthouse snitch have many ways to make money from drug dealers.

Suppose that way back in Season 1, Judge Phelan put the Barksdale investigation in motion not from righteous indignation about criminal behavior, but rather from a profit motive. Fits with The Wire ethos, no?

good call, you might be right.

Have to agree, I couldn't remember Phalan's name but it cleary can't be rhonda. and I doubt they would pawn it off on someone the audience has never met- Phalen tied mcnulty in during season 1 because it was becoming too easy for Levy and thus Phalen needed some leverage-

Do we know anyone else in the court system besides Rhonda Phalen or Levy?

There's Eileen Nathan, the ASA who prosecuted Bird and needed Omar's testimony, but we haven't seen her since she helped get Omar transferred to a less dangerous jail. And, of course, there's State's Attorney Bond, as well as his predecessor (whose name escapes me), but that's pretty high up the food chain.

How about McNulty's friend in the US Attorney's office? Not a state-level leak, but likely could get access to all the materials. Not a really likely culprit, I admit, but just trying to cover all bases. I agree that Judge Phelan is the best suspect -- access to court materials, great story arc (linking Season 1 with Season 5), often shown to be grasping and greedy (for example how he pressured Rhonda to get the lunch tab), a little bit dirty and seedy (didn't he hit on Rhonda in some earlier season?), etc.

Why is it clear it can't be Rhonda? Wouldn't it be perfect if Lester had the dirt on Ronnie and vice versa? It would be a stalemate, and everyone would get away with their dirty deeds. This way, nothing ever changes and the system continues to be corrupt, just the way David Simon wants to portray it.

It's more likely to be Herc, who has no problem pumping Carver for information.

But Herc has only been with Levy for what, a year? 18 months? There has been a source for court information at least since season 3, when Prop Joe tried to lure Marlo into the co-op with promises of advance notice of police actions.

Also, Herc works for a lawyer, not directly for the state. His access to official documents would probably be limited at best. Even if he gets bits and pieces from his ex-cop buddies, there is clearly a leak giving away more significant information.

I forgot about Prop Joe's conversation, but what I remember hearing had to do with a grand jury indictment, not police actions. I guess I didn't associate that with delivering a sealed grand jury document, since it's one thing to hear from a source that so and so is going to be indicted, it's another thing entirely to be able to buy the file.