By: Joel Davis Crews Subpoenaed In Civil Case
Tim Crews, the rural Northern California newspaperman jailed last
year for refusing to reveal a source, is again fighting a
subpoena for his work, this time in a civil case.
Crews, editor and publisher of the semiweekly Sacramento
Valley Mirror in Artois, is being subpoenaed by Colusa County
in its defense of a lawsuit. The suit charges the county with
illegal dumping of hazardous materials. The county wants all of
the newspaper's articles on the lawsuit's subjects, something
Crews says he and his small staff do not have the time to
produce.
Crews told E&P the subpoena is in retaliation for his
paper's reporting about a Colusa County official. He said he
believes he is protected by California's shield law and
precedents established in the U.S. Supreme Court.
"In any event, I'm not going to tell [the suit's defendants]
anything," he said.
Joel Davis (jdavis@editorandpublisher.com) is West Coast editor for E&P.
Related stories:
CALIFORNIA EDITOR SUES FOR POLICE RECORDS (11/13/00)
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY HEARS TESTIMONY ON SHIELD LAW (05/18/00)
JAILED CALIFORNIA JOURNALIST FREE (03/06/00)
CALIFORNIA JOURNALIST JAILED (02/28/00)
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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