'Philly Inquirer' Reporters Sentenced For Contempt

By: Joe Strupp Four Philadelphia Inquirer reporters were fined $1,000, and three of them were sentenced to several days of community service Thursday morning after being found in contempt of court for disobeying a judge's order not to interview or identify former jurors in a high-profile New Jersey murder case.

Camden County Superior Court Judge Theodore Z. Davis, who found the reporters in contempt on June 17, handed down the sentences today. The reporters, George Anastasia, Joseph A. Gambardello, Emilie Lounsberry, and Dwight Ott, were each fined $1,000.

In addition, Lounsberry, Ott, and Anastasia were sentenced to 180 days in jail, but had those sentences suspended. Instead of jail time, Judge Davis ordered Lounsberry and Ott to perform 10 days of community service, while giving Anastasia five days.

Inquirer Editor Walker Lundy slammed the punishment and said the sentences would be appealed. "I'm stunned that in this country you can be sentenced for asking somebody a question," Lundy said in a statement. "I do not believe this will stand."

The reporters were charged with contempt in December for violating an order by Superior Court Judge Linda Baxter not to interview or identify in print jurors from the murder trial of Rabbi Fred J. Neulander. The rabbi, whose trial ended with a hung jury last fall, is accused of killing his wife in a case that has received international attention. He will be retried later this year.

"The line that must be drawn here is that a citizen -- even one exercising First Amendment rights -- must obey an order issued by a court," Davis wrote in his 21-page ruling. "The (reporters') arrogance and contumacious conduct cannot by this court be swallowed and digested."

Judge Davis previously found Philadelphia Magazine writer Carol Saline in contempt in January for talking to a Neulander juror while the trial was ongoing. He fined her $1,000 and gave her a 30-day suspended sentence.