By: E&P Staff The FBI has been contacted to investigate alleged threats made against a reporter from Cleveland's Plain Dealer, the Morning Journal of Lorain, Ohio, reports in Tuesday's edition.
The Plain Dealer reporter claims that Lorain police officers have harassed him and a letter from Plain Dealer Managing Editor Tom O'Hara to Mayor Craig Foltin, Law Director Mark Provenza and police Chief Cel Rivera says that the reporter "has been told by a number of well-positioned confidential sources of threats of physical violence and intimidation against him by police officers and their associates." The article states that the reporter was working on an investigative story about the police department.
O'Hara's letter mentions two separate incidents in the letter. On one occasion, while two Plain Dealer reporters were looking through records, the air was let out of a tire on one reporter's car.
On another occasion, the article says, O'Hara wrote that the same reporter was attending a Lorain Admiral King High School football game when four police officers "lurked" near the reporter's family and at one point confronted the reporter's son.
"Given the fact that there were rumors about the people who were being investigated being unhappy, I felt it was prudent to alert some city officials," O'Hara is quoted as saying. "If the chief felt getting the FBI involved was the right thing to do, that's fine with me."
Police did a preliminary investigation of the matter and had determined that the charges didn't have any merit. After the police investigation, Rivera passed the allegations on to the FBI.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here