Dodge City reporter faces subpoena / LJWorld.com

Archive for Thursday, November 5, 2009

Associated Press

November 5, 2009

Dodge City — The Dodge City Daily Globe is challenging a county attorney’s efforts to obtain a reporter’s notes and testimony about a jailhouse interview she conducted with a man charged in a fatal shooting.

Ford County Attorney Terry Malone issued a subpoena to the Globe and reporter Claire O’Brien, seeking details about an Oct. 7 interview with shooting suspect Samuel Bonilla. An Oct. 13 story in the Globe based mostly on that interview included a few statements attributed to anonymous sources.

Bonilla is charged in the shooting over Labor Day weekend of two Dodge City residents, which left one man dead and another wounded. In the interview, Bonilla told O’Brien he acted in self-defense.

Attorney William Hurst, who is representing the Globe and O’Brien, filed a motion Monday to quash the subpoena. O’Brien was scheduled to appear at an inquisition Tuesday, but it was postponed to give Malone time to respond to O’Brien’s motion.

Hurst’s motion contends that Malone is trying to force O’Brien to become an investigative agent for the government, rather than an independent reporter.

“Under the federal constitution, as construed by the courts of this State, a subpoena that undermines the ability of the press to serve its important public functions without advancing a substantial law enforcement or judicial need should be quashed,” the motion says. “That is precisely the case here.”

Malone said he subpoenaed O’Brien because he needs more information for an investigation of Bonilla’s version of events. He also wants her to identify a source who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity.

In his motion, Hurst argues that courts have protected journalists from having to testify when the information sought is not essential to the government’s case and when it could easily be obtained from other sources.

A hearing on the motion was scheduled for Nov. 20.

Malone said he and Hurst may be able to find a way to allow him to obtain the information he wants without requiring O’Brien to turn over her notes and testify.

“If Mr. Hurst and I can come to agreements to obtain the information through other means, that may be one way we approach it,” he said. “If we can’t, then of course we’ll be responding that we should be able to go forward with our inquisition testimony.”

O’Brien said she is not convinced that Malone needs her notes to obtain the information he is seeking.

“The state can do its job and should do its job and only come to any reporter, expecting her to betray her sources and professional standards, if it’s exhausted all other methods,” she said. “And I think that there are plenty of avenues open before the state should take such a grave step.”

The Oct. 13 story included comments from bail bondsman Rebecca Escalante, who told O’Brien that she would have posted Bonilla’s bond if she were not afraid for his safety.