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Reporter won't have to turn over documents
State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL) - Thursday, October 5, 2006
Author/Byline: CHRIS DETTRO STAFF WRITER
Section: CITY/STATE
Page: 10
A Sangamon County judge will examine a pair of documents relating to an investigation into alleged misconduct by two Springfield police detectives after avoiding a potential conflict with media interests Wednesday.
However, a local reporter won't have to produce her copies of the documents.
Angela Fyans, assistant corporation counsel for the city of Springfield, agreed to provide Circuit Judge Leo Zappa with a 30-page summary of the Illinois State Police investigation into the activities of detectives Paul Carpenter and Jim Graham. Zappa also will look at a letter written to the police department in spring 2005 in which former detective Ron Vose outlined his complaints about Carpenter and Graham.
Springfield attorney Jon Gray Noll, who represents Larry M. Washington, 34, on a charge of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, had asked the court to require Dusty Rhodes, a reporter for the Illinois Times weekly, to produce the two documents at a hearing Wednesday.
Rhodes referred to the documents in an article she wrote in the Sept. 28 issue.
Noll subpoenaed Rhodes to produce the documents. Noll said he wanted the report and letter to determine if anything in them is relevant to the case involving his client, Washington, who is free on $1 million bond.
Carpenter and Graham investigated the case.
Springfield attorney Donald Craven moved to quash the subpoena on the grounds that Rhodes has reporter's privilege. For a court to require a reporter to provide such information, it must first find that all other sources have been exhausted and that disclosure is essential for the public interest, Craven said.
Noll attempted to call Rhodes to the witness stand, but Craven said Noll first had to establish that her testimony was relevant and that he had made efforts to obtain the information by other means.
"We're not after a source, we're asking that documents be produced," Noll responded. "If she produces the documents right now, she doesn't have to take the stand.
"We're not asking for any work product. She has no right to the documents. What if she had a stolen car? It's about like that."
Craven told Zappa that his client, who was in the courtroom, couldn't waive the reporter's privilege even to let the judge look at the report and Vose's letter in chambers.
"That would make us involuntary investigators for both sides," Craven said.
Craven also took exception to Noll's use of the words "stolen" and "purloined" in reference to Rhodes having the papers.
"There's no record she's done anything wrong, improper or immoral," Craven said.
Zappa said he disagreed with Craven that he had no right to view the documents privately.
Fyans, representing the city and the police department, said she had seen the investigative summary and the entire 2,300-page report, "and I can tell you it has nothing to do with (Washington's) case."
Assistant state's attorney Amy Wolff said although she didn't think the document was relevant to the Washington case, she thought Rhodes "had to know she had no legal right to that document."
Attorney Ron Stone, representing Springfield Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit No. 5, said although he wasn't happy about Rhodes obtaining the investigative summary, "we resist any effort to have her produce it."
"There has been no discipline announced, and these are just allegations," he said.
Graham and Carpenter, who have been on paid administrative leave for almost a year, haven't been charged with any crimes, and both the U.S. attorney's office and the Illinois state's attorney's appellate prosecutor's office have passed on pursuing any charges.
Fyans said she had no problem with allowing Zappa to inspect the city's copies of the documents privately.
"There. I think I've solved my problem," Zappa said, and quashed the subpoena issued to Rhodes.
Index Terms: LOCAL
Record Number: 0000702593