-Caveat Lector-
07/29/2001 - Updated 11:15 PM ET
Reporter's jailing by feds draws criticism
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
The jailing of a Texas reporter who refused to give her research to U.S.
prosecutors has raised concerns that Attorney General John Ashcroft is
reversing a policy that gives journalists wide latitude in protecting
confidential sources and unpublished information.
At the Justice Department's request, a federal judge jailed freelance
writer Vanessa Leggett on July 20 on contempt of court charges after she
refused to turn over notes, tape recordings and other material she
collected while researching a book on the slaying of Doris Angleton in
1997. Angleton was the wife of Robert Angleton, a millionaire ex-bookie who
was acquitted in 1998 of hiring his brother to commit the murder.
The decision to jail Leggett, done at prosecutors' behest by an
unidentified judge in a closed court hearing in Houston, has drawn
criticism from press freedom groups and has become the latest curious twist
in the U.S. government's pursuit of the Angleton case. The focus of the
federal investigation is unclear.
The Justice Department last had a reporter jailed in 1991, when four South
Carolina journalists were locked up for eight hours when they refused to
testify at the corruption trial of a state senator. Since 1973, the U.S.
attorney general has been required to approve every federal subpoena issued
to a reporter as well as every request by federal prosecutors to arrest a
reporter.
Justice Department spokesman Chris Watney declined to discuss Leggett's
case or whether Ashcroft was involved. Watney said that under federal
policy, Ashcroft's approval would not be needed in such a case if
prosecutors did not consider the person withholding material to be a
journalist.
"This is a darn significant case," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director
of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "It's either an
important shift in policy or (prosecutors are) ignorant of a Justice
Department policy in effect since the Nixon administration."
Leggett, 33, a writing teacher at the University of Houston, does not have
a contract for her book and has not published any articles related to it.
She has talked with several magazines about publishing a story on the
murder case, however.
Leggett has spent several years researching the slaying in April 1997 of
Doris Angleton, whose husband, Robert, was acquitted in a state court in
August 1998.
Robert Angleton's brother, Roger Angleton, committed suicide in jail in
February 1998, leaving a confession that said he had acted alone. Leggett
interviewed Roger Angleton before his suicide.
The U.S. government began investigating Robert Angleton after his
acquittal.
Media attorneys say that if U.S. officials pushed to jail Leggett with the
idea that federal protections for journalists did not apply to her, the
officials were in error.
"She stands in the same shoes as any television or newspaper reporter,"
says Robert Lystad, an attorney for the Society of Professional Journalists
who is not involved in Leggett's case. "She's exactly the type of reporter
or book author who shouldn't be harassed into turning over her notes."
Leggett's jailing also has been criticized because it was done secretly.
The hearing was closed to the public at the government's request. The
transcript is sealed, and the judge's name was not released.
"It's one thing to incarcerate a member of the press for not doing what the
government wants. But to do it in secret and threaten to jail (her) lawyer
for talking about the details is outrageous," said Mike DeGuerin, Leggett's
attorney.
The Angleton murder case has attracted considerable attention in Houston.
The CBS show 48 Hours is preparing a report on it.
Ken Paulson, executive director of the First Amendment Center, said Leggett
will have difficulty winning her appeal. Texas does not have a "shield law"
that lets reporters protect confidential sources and research material.
Leggett can be held for up to 18 months on the contempt charges.
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