Jailed reporter is freed p. 38

By: Editorial Staff

A NEWSPAPER REPORTER was released from jail after serving 22 days for contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury ? the longest such sentence for any American journalist in a de-cade.
Lisa Abraham, a reporter at the Tribune Chronicle, Warren, Ohio, said she did not regret her stay in the Trumbull County Jail.
"I still believe I was doing the right thing," she said. "I would do it again tomorrow." But she added, "I hope I never have to do it again."
Ohio is one of 29 states with "shield laws," which forbid forcing reporters to reveal confidential sources. But the state's law does not address the question of grand jury testimony.
Abraham was jailed after Judge John Stuard found her in contempt of court. She had refused to testify before a grand jury investigating the $25,000 office renovation of county engineer James Fiorenzo.
Fiorenzo, who has been indicted on various counts, has pleaded innocent and is free on $10,000 bond.
Special Prosecutor Jonathan Rosenbaum had wanted Abraham to testify about a June 1993 interview with Fio-renzo.
Comments made then appeared to conflict with a statement Fiorenzo issued later, Rosenbaum said.
The contempt charge would have remained in effect until the grand jury's term expired. Abraham's attorneys asked that the 30-year-old reporter be released early because the panel appeared to have finished its work. Stuard agreed.
Abraham's contempt sentence was the longest for any journalist in a decade, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit group based in Washington that offers free legal assistance to journalists.