By: Joe Strupp A Florida judge has signed an order barring The Tampa Tribune, its Web site, and a sister television station from reporting statements made by four middle school students accused of sexually assaulting a classmate.
The Thursday order from Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Emmett Lamar Battles prompted the newspaper to remove a story about the four defendants from its Web site on Thursday, about 90 minutes after it was first posted, the Tribune reported.
At issue are statements in court documents made by the four teens accused of bullying a flag football teammate for weeks before assaulting him with a broomstick and a hockey stick in a locker room at the school, the Tribune reported. The four were arrested May 6.
Battles' order states that: "certain discovery material not be disclosed to the public until the criminal charges against the defendants are finally determined by adjudication, dismissal or other final disposition."
Janet Coats, vice president of news for Florida Communications Group and Tribune editor, said the story was removed because the newspaper did not want to violate a judge's order. But she plans to challenge the injunction, the Tribune reported.
"We're going to fight the order," Coats said in the story. "We believe we obtained this material properly. But while we are fighting it, we had to take the story down."
WFLA-TV, owned by Tribune parent Media General, pulled its story from a 5 p.m. newscast Thursday.
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