Kansas City, Kan. ? Owners of the Yellow House store reached an agreement Wednesday with federal prosecutors that will keep them out of jail while they await trial next year on stolen goods and fraud charges.

But the agreement restricts those involved in the case from discussing it publicly, including on Internet forums.

Guy and Carrie Neighbors signed the agreement during a hearing in U.S. District Court with Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara presiding.

Federal prosecutors filed a motion in May asking the judge to revoke the Neighborses’ bonds because the government accused the couple of publishing false blog posts to criminally defame Lawrence police officers and a postal inspector.

The agreement also requires the couple to take steps to remove any material they had posted on the Internet about the case on Web sites they can control, such as personal blogs, and to request removal of their posts on other sites.

The couple said they couldn’t comment after the hearing, but a defense attorney for Guy Neighbors, Cheryl Pilate, said in court that both sides understand “the best place to settle these issues is in the courtroom rather than in any other forum.”

For nearly three years, the couple have said allegations that they’ve knowingly sold stolen goods were false. And they’ve repeatedly accused law enforcement and prosecutors of corruption.

The U.S. attorney’s office argues that the blog posts are untrue and were written to intimidate officers and other witnesses from testifying.

David Gottlieb, a Kansas University law professor, said speech that could be ruled as threatening to witnesses or prosecutors wouldn’t be protected simply because it was a blog post.

“It just doesn’t strike me as that different from other kinds of statements that might be sanctioned,” Gottlieb said.

During the hearing, O’Hara advised the Neighborses to contact their attorneys if they had questions about whether any of their future actions could risk violating the agreement. In an earlier hearing this month about the motion from prosecutors to revoke bond, officers had testified about the claims in the blog posts.

“This has been stressful for everybody involved,” O’Hara told the couple.

The Neighborses face 19 counts each related to allegations that they sold stolen property, and they face federal drug charges in a separate case. Their trials will likely be in mid-2009.

Attorneys have plenty of evidence to review in the stolen goods case, including 11 CDs that have more than 15,000 pages of documents, plus 17 binders and 35 boxes of physical exhibits and other documents.

Guy and Carrie Neighbors each remain free on $25,000 bond.