Attorneys for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes sought Thursday to block prosecutors from obtaining records about him from the University of Colorado.

In a hearing in Arapahoe County District Court, Holmes’ lawyers revealed they have filed a motion seeking to cancel a prosecution subpoena for records served on CU.

An attorney for the university turned over two sealed envelopes at the hearing to Judge William Sylvester, each containing an identical set of about 100 pages of documents. It is unclear what the documents are, except that the university’s attorney said they are not medical records.

Whether the judge will ultimately give those documents to prosecutors will be determined at a hearing next Thursday.

Until then, it is not certain whether even Sylvester can look at them. Sylvester said he planned to do an “in camera” review — meaning he would look at the records in his office — to prepare for the next hearing. But Tamara Brady, one of Holmes’ attorneys, objected to that, and Sylvester said he would hold off on making a decision about reviewing the documents until Brady filed a written objection.

In the meantime, the mystery records will remain sealed in Sylvester’s office, “pending a determination of what we’re going to do with them,” the judge said.

The debate — which came during a brief procedural hearing — highlighted the inch-by-inch legal struggle likely to dominate the case for months to come. Prosecutors said they need the records from CU to prepare for another hearing over whether they are entitled to see an entirely different document also currently sitting in a sealed envelope inside a court office. That record — a package that Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist at CU — is the subject of a debate over whether it is a private doctor-patient communication that prosecutors should not have access to.

The hearing on the package, which had been scheduled for Thursday, is now set for Aug. 30.

Sylvester also set hearings for Sept. 20 and 27, and set the week of Dec. 10 as a fall-back date for the crucial preliminary hearing currently scheduled to start Nov. 13.

“It looks like we’re going to be seeing a fair amount of each other for the foreseeable future,” Sylvester told the attorneys Thursday.

Holmes, 24, faces 24 counts of murder and 116 counts of attempted murder in the July 20 attack at the Century Aurora 16 theater. Holmes allegedly opened fire during the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Twelve people died and another 58 were wounded in the attack.

On Thursday, Sylvester signed an order allowing prosecutors to provide the names and contact information of victims and their next-of-kin to the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, so long as the victims consent. Prosecutor Rich Orman said COVA would take over distributing money from the victim’s assistance fund established after the shootings.

The Aurora Victim Relief Fund currently holds $4.4 million, a spokeswoman for the Community First Foundation, which is administering the fund, said. About $200,000 has been distributed so far.

“There are many victims who may be incapacitated or have lost family members and are in very dire financial straits,” Orman said.

In a separate order, Sylvester denied a request from Holmes’ attorneys to have a defense expert present at all scientific testing of evidence conducted by prosecutors. Sylvester wrote that the defense could have an expert at testing that would destroy evidence as part of analyzing it, but otherwise would have to conduct testing of evidence separately.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold