Santa Barbara Paper Turns Over 144 Photos of Gang Fight to Judge

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By: A newspaper reluctantly turned over 144 unpublished photographs taken during a State Street gang fight that resulted in the stabbing death of a teenager.

Santa Barbara Daily Sound editor and publisher Jeramy Gordon, calling it "a sad day for journalism and for our rights as Americans," turned over the March 14 gang fight photos to Superior Court.

Judge Brian Hill ordered Gordon to hand over the photos earlier last week.

Luis Angel Linares, 15, was stabbed to death during the brazen daytime street fight. Gordon said the images by co-publisher Charles Swegles don't show anything that hasn't already been published.

Deputy Public Defender Karen Atkins, representing the 14-year-old charged in the killing, requested the photos be handed over in a petition that was filed under seal.

"I still have not seen it," Gordon said. "It's just been a blanket request because they don't know what we had."

Gordon said the newspaper couldn't afford to fight the court order.

"This newspaper was singled out because Deputy Public Defender Karen Atkins knew we didn't have the resources to fight her fishing expedition," Gordon said in a statement.

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