RICHMOND -- A gubernatorial panel investigating the Virginia Tech shootings has gained access to more mental health records of gunman Seung-Hui Cho, largely because of an executive order that Gov. Tim Kaine issued Monday.

Kaine's order may give the panel greater ability to access other health and academic records as it continues its investigation of the April 16 shootings.

A Montgomery County General District judge on Monday approved the panel's request for audio recordings and written records of a Dec. 14, 2005, hearing in which Cho was found to be mentally ill and ordered to seek outpatient treatment. The hearing occurred about 16 months before the campus shooting rampage that left 33 students and professors dead, including Cho.

The judge's ruling comes one week after Tech officials, with the consent of Cho's family, provided the panel with Cho's campus mental health records. The panel has identified Cho's mental health history as a key issue in its investigation of the shootings.

Federal privacy laws had prevented the panel from getting access to the sealed records of Cho's 2005 hearing before Special Justice Paul Barnett. But in his Monday court order, Judge Randal Duncan wrote that Kaine's panel "was clothed with authority for appropriate oversight of the Virginia Mental Health Care System" under the new executive order signed by Kaine.

Kaine's Executive Order 53 clarifies the powers of the eight-member panel he appointed to review all aspects of the shootings. Among other things, it designates the panel as a "health oversight authority" with power to examine the mental health system.

Duncan ruled that the authority Kaine gave the panel is consistent with the authority given to the state inspector general for mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services. Inspector General James Stewart reviewed the records of Cho's commitment hearing while preparing a report on the troubled student's dealings with the mental health system. But Stewart was prohibited from sharing the hearing records with the panel at its June 11 meeting.

Lawyers assisting the panel recommended that the governor issue the order to better define its mission and legal standing, Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall said. Kaine appointed the panel within days of the shootings but had never clearly defined its powers.

The order grants limited subpoena power, which the panel could use to obtain information from executive branch agencies. And it allows the panel to ask the Virginia Crime Commission, a legislative agency, to subpoena records that the panel is unable to obtain.

"The Panel shall have any authority I can give it to pursue records necessary to its mission by court order," Kaine's order states.

The panel's chairman, Gerald Massengill, has insisted that the group would use whatever means possible to get access to information for its probe. He said Kaine's order "puts us in a better position to get where we need to go."

Kaine's broad order directs Tech and "other education institutions" to provide the panel with any scholastic and health records it seeks during its investigation. In addition to examining Cho's life at Tech, the panel also is looking into Cho's experiences at Westfield High School in Centreville. The panel's staff plans to interview Cho's high school counselors during their investigation.

Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the panel has not asked the university for Cho's academic records, which are protected by federal law. But Hincker said the governor's order will make it easier for Tech to provide the records because the panel will have the same privacy restrictions as the university.

The order states that any records protected by privacy laws would be treated as governor's "working papers" and not made public.

Hincker characterized Kaine's order as a positive development in the panel's investigation.

"The important thing for us is to get the panel the information they need for their deliberations," Hincker said.