NEWARK PAPER STRUGGLES WITH SETON HALL STORY

By: Allan Wolper Reporter Doesn't Want To Create Another 'Richard Jewell'



Reporter Guy Sterling of The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., knows
the names. He's spoken to their lawyers. He's told his editors. He's
done background checks. But he's waiting. He doesn't want to create
another Richard Jewell - the security guard wrongly accused of setting
off a lethal bomb at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.



But Sterling's frustration grows each day as he waits for Essex County
prosecutors to formally identify, arrest, or indict one or more of the
three Seton Hall University students being questioned in the Jan. 19
dormitory fire at Seton Hall in South Orange, N.J., that killed three
freshman and injured 58 other students.



'We know the prosecutors have several suspects who they believe have
information about the fire or may have set the fire,' Sterling said
slowly. 'We know a lot about the kids. And we've mentioned that there
are suspects, even though we haven't identified anyone.'



Sterling's voice is confident, but wary. At times it seems he is
debating himself, mulling the ethical roadblocks that convinced him and
his editors to keep the identities of the suspects off their front
page.



'We've done the research,' he said. 'And we still have to keep our
readers informed. But what happens if we identify these kids and later
on none of them are charged? Then they will have to carry that around
for the rest of their lives. That's a pretty heavy burden for anyone to
carry.'



But the longer it takes, the less likely someone will be caught.
Sterling discovered that arson investigations produce arrests and
convictions only about 10% of the time. Which is why he continues to
harangue himself.



'For the time being, we have to be prudent,' he explained. 'It
certainly will change if there is an indictment. We talk about it all
the time. I've never covered a case that has taken so long to
conclude.'



Looming just over Sterling's computer is the legacy of Richard Jewell.
'The Jewell case is a prime example of the kind of trouble you can get
into,' Sterling explained. 'You have to watch your butt.'



Sterling periodically writes a story on the Seton Hall fire
investigation to keep it in the public eye, to let the prosecutors know
his newspaper is watching them, even as Essex County investigators have
declared a news blackout. And on April 19 - the three-month anniversary
of the fire - Essex County Prosecutor Donald Campolo felt compelled to
say something about his investigation.



'I can understand why people might feel frustration,' Campolo told
Sterling in a piece he co-wrote with fellow Star-Ledger reporter
William Kleinknecht, 'but we intend to do our job in a professional way
and will not be making any pronouncements that are improper or
premature.'



Charlotte Smith, the press spokeswoman for the Essex County
prosecutor's office, was just as forthcoming as her boss. 'We are not
going to talk about any suspects,' Smith told E&P. 'I don't know
what The Star-Ledger knows.'



The Star-Ledger is as cautious as the prosecutor's office. James
Willse, its editor, acknowledged that even though his reporters were
aggressively covering the Seton Hall fire investigation, they were
being careful in what they were reporting about it.



'We know the names of the suspects,' he said, 'and we continue to
exercise what strikes us as prudent caution about what we report.'



Willse said he is reluctant to disclose internal discussions about
The Star-Ledger's handling of the story. 'We don't want to have
people looking under our hood,' he said, 'but, yes, we do talk about it
quite a bit.'



He declined to speculate about what would prompt the paper to break its
self-imposed silence on the prosecutor's investigation. 'I'm sure that
there are cases that take a long time to investigate and some that are
never solved,' he said. 'What makes this a little bit different is the
visibility of the original story and the complexity of the
investigation. We understand it may be difficult to reconstruct what
happened, much less who may have been involved.'



Aly Colon, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute in St.
Petersburg, Fla., endorsed Sterling's careful handling of the student
suspects' identities. 'You have to hold information until you have
absolutely documented it,' said Colon, former metro editor of The
Seattle Times. 'You must do that to make sure that you are
interpreting the information accurately. It might be that someone is a
suspect, but is not involved in the crime. They may find themselves
lumped into the act, but are not charged with anything themselves.
There is never a good time to publish anything that you are not sure
of.'



The Seton Hall campus ended its spring semester without any word on
whether the person or persons who set the fire might be a matriculated
student or students who could return in the fall.



Seton Hall officials said that prosecutors have promised to inform them
if any of the school's present students were suspected of being
involved in setting the dormitory fire.



'The prosecutors told our attorney's today [May 9] that they have not
identified any suspects and have not targeted anyone,' said Lisa
Grider, assistant vice president of university relations. 'We have been
assured, and reassured, since the fire of Jan. 19 that if the
prosecutors found anyone who posed a danger to our community, we would
have been told about it. We have been given no names, and they have
identified no one to us.'



She sounded distressed by the notion that prosecutors might have leaked
the names of the suspects to The Star-Ledger without informing
the university as well. 'If The Star-Ledger knows the names of
the suspects, then they know more than we know,' she said.



Jeff Cartwright, an assistant prosecutor who is overseeing the
prosecution, denied to E&P that he told Seton Hall that his
office had not targeted anyone. 'I told them we have not made any
public statements about the case,' he explained.



In any event, there is no pressure on The Star-Ledger to publish
the names of the suspects.



South Orange Village Township President William Calabrese, for example,
believes a media drumbeat of stories that identifies possible suspects
would drown out a single article that cleared someone.



'The Star-Ledger is right,' said Calabrese. 'If I ran that
paper, I would not publish any names. You just can't trust someone who
thinks someone [else] is guilty. People love to see their names in the
newspaper. They are always looking for immortality.'



Calabrese dismissed the idea that identifying suspects might generate
additional witnesses in a case. 'If people know anything, they'll tell
the police,' he said.



The attorneys representing the victims in the case also support a
cautious media approach to the investigation and don't think that
waiting out the prosecutor will affect anyone's lawsuit against either
the university or the township of South Orange.



'I think the newspapers have put out as much as they have known,' said
Nicholas Grieco, a West Orange attorney representing three students who
suffered assorted hurts in the fire. 'I think the prosecutor should
finish and then release the information. I don't know if it hurts or
helps my case. But we don't want to deal with rumors and innuendoes.
The important thing for us is that the reporters have respected the
privacy of my clients. They have been through a lot and just want to
get on with their lives.'



Michael Testa, a civil attorney who represents the estate of John
Giunta, one of the three students who was killed in the fire, has seen
the damage that a quick, unsubstantiated accusation can have on a
defendant's chance for a fair trial.



'Whether someone publishes the name of a suspect doesn't affect any of
the lawsuits,' Testa said. 'It is not a fair or wise thing for a
reporter to publish the names of suspects. That kind of publicity has a
dramatic, negative impact on that person's future. I know. I have an
active criminal practice as well as a civil one.



'When someone reads a story about someone, they form an opinion, and it
is hard to overcome the negative impact of that.'



He pointed out that police suspects often are designated 'suspicious'
characters and that this designation should not be taken as seriously
as the one applied to a person who has been indicted by a grand jury.



'When someone is indicted, that indicates probable cause,' Testa said.
'Many times, when a story is published with someone labeled a suspect,
it is based on false information. People like to talk, and they
sometimes say things that are untrue. It is wrong to quote anonymous
sources to identify someone in a newspaper who are not answerable to
anyone. When these people appear before a grand jury, then they can be
held accountable for what they say. You don't want to publish
irresponsible statements. ...



'It is often important for reporters to use anonymous sources to
investigate cases, but we need safeguards. Especially in a case like
this.'



Maria Zingaro, a reporter for the weekly News-Record of
Maplewood & South Orange, has listened to the grinding of the rumor
mill, but has no desire to drag someone through the mud, especially if
it is confirmed that the suspects are students. And she worries, like
the others, that premature publication of a name or names might hinder
the investigation.



'I feel an obligation to be very careful because I don't want to take a
risk without having a good reason for taking that risk,' she said.