Contempt of the court

By: David Noack Glenn may face jail for not revealing his source

In a potentially precedent-setting case of protecting confidential sources, a weekly newspaper in New Mexico is fighting a contempt order against a reporter who refused to name the source of a story that led to criminal charges against two former local officials.
Glenn May, 34, the city government reporter at the Rio Grande Sun in Espa?ola, was found to be in contempt of court on May 13 by state district judge Michael Vigil for not revealing who told him about an altered drunk-driving arrest record of former Espa?ola city manager Max Sanchez. If May refuses to name his source, he could go to jail. The paper plans to appeal the judge's ruling in the New Mexico Court of Appeals, a mid-level court.
The 11,000-circulation paper, which is about 35 miles north of Santa Fe, reported last October that former Espa?ola Municipal Court Judge Dolores Vigil apparently participated in a cover-up of Sanchez's drunk-driving arrest on Oct. 24, 1996.
May's story resulted in Dolores Vigil's plead of no contest in February to tampering with public records, a fourth-degree felony. She was sentenced to 18 months probation and 100 hours of community service. May is now being asked for the source of information on the altered arrest record.
"I am prepared to go to jail. I have no choice here. ? If I start giving up sources I'm out of business in a day. This is a small community, and it's hard enough getting people to talk on or off the record," says May. He has worked at the paper since August 1996.
Robert Johnson, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, says that within the last 15 years he can't recall a reporter in the state being held in contempt of court for failing to reveal a source. The New Mexico Press Association plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of May.
Hal Simmons, an Albuquerque lawyer who represents the press association, says the case is of statewide importance.
"We feel it's an extremely important question and affects all our newsgathering abilities, so all the newspapers in the state are interested in this particular case because it's going to set a legal precedent," says Simmons.
The case is unusual in that May was not subpoenaed specifically to reveal the source of the story. Instead, May is a prosecution witness. The district attorney's office reinstated charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated and reckless driving against Sanchez, the same charges that Dolores Vigil, the local court judge, dismissed.
In an interview, May says he "did not simply go to the PIO (public information officer) at the police department and was handed a slip of paper with a Post-It note that said 'rebook.'" The drunk-driving records were altered so Sanchez's name was either confusing or unclear.
Because the police records were altered, local prosecutors hauled Sanchez back into court. One of the police officers who arrested Sanchez, Brian Vigil, has since left the force and faces trial on tampering with public records. None of the Vigils cited in the story are related.
Jerry Todd Wertheim, Sanchez's lawyer, is seeking to have the case dismissed, arguing that the one-year statute of limitations has run out on the offense, since the police department took no action.
"This case was prosecuted because of the press. Therefore, the press has the key information as to whether the statute of limitations does or does not apply," Wertheim is quoted as saying in The Albuquerque Journal.
May says Sanchez's lawyer wants to know if other police officers knew what was going on and did nothing, thereby allowing the statute of limitations to expire.
"They are trying to get to see whether my source is a police officer and that the police knew about it, [and] did nothing about it. ? It's not his client's fault that they did not prosecute Sanchez ? They are just trying to take a shortcut here and ask me," says May.
Sun Publisher Robert Trapp says the newspaper intends to support May in the legal battle.
"We are taking care of legal fees. We are backing him up. We will go as far as we have to go ," says Trapp.
He says that while May could end up going to jail for declining to name his source, Dolores Vigil, the local court judge, got probation and community service and Sanchez is trying to get his charges dropped.
Trapp says that May has not revealed to anyone the name of the source.
"I have complete confidence that he knows his source," says Trapp.
The state has a shield law, which is really a Supreme Court rule of evidence combined with a legislative act that applies only before government agencies ? that provides a qualified privilege protecting sources and unpublished information. Disclosure can be compelled if the material is "relevant" and "crucial" to the case, there is no alternative means of getting the information, and whether disclosure "clearly outweighs" the public interest in the free flow of information.
Trapp says other sources that may also have information related to the altered record have not been pursued aggressively.He says that Sanchez's lawyer simply made telephone calls to other police officers involved in the arrest and talked to the police chief. The phone calls were not returned.
Rio Grande Sun reporter Glenn May could go to jail for refusing to name a source for a story.
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