St. Paul Police Seized Two Months' Worth Of Reporter's Phone Records

By: Search warrants unsealed this week show St. Paul police seized two months of cell-phone records from both a TV reporter and a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy, apparently a far wider time frame than police had previously said.

The records were seized as part of an investigation into whether the deputy leaked private data to the reporter. The data was later determined to be public and the investigation was dropped, but not before angering First Amendment advocates.

Last week police spokesman Tom Walsh said the probe was tightly focused and involved "certainly fewer than six hours."

He stood by that statement on Dec. 18, saying the investigation focused on the six-hour period but if evidence was found to warrant further investigation, police could have read the rest of the phone data.

Tom Lyden, the KMSP-TV reporter whose records were obtained, said the expanded time frame was more proof of his earlier allegation that police were trying to "dry up my sources."

When asked if there was a way to prove police looked at only six hours of records, Walsh said there may be "but that's one of the things we're talking to Tom Lyden about. He doesn't want us to show you what we were looking at."

The phone records were obtained without the knowledge of Lyden or the station, making it impossible for either of them to fight the request in court.

Ramsey County District Judge Michael DeCourcy signed the warrants for the records for Lyden and sheriff's deputy Steve Lydon between May 13 and July 17.

KMSP-TV wants Lyden's records returned to him, said Bill Dallman, KMSP vice president for news. "Fox 9 continues to strongly insist that reporter Tom Lyden's phone records remain private," he said.

The investigation came about after the station in June aired Lyden's story about the criminal history of a woman whose husband had shot a plainclothes police officer during a traffic dispute in Coon Rapids.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said he believed St. Paul police made false claims and abused their authority in affidavits for the warrants. "There has to be an accounting for this type of reckless behavior," Fletcher said.

On the other hand, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said he saw the search-warrant applications for the first time on Dec. 18 and nothing in them "indicates either of those things (false claims or abuse of authority) to me."