Florida lawyer charged with contempt of court for allegedly violating judge's nondisclosure order
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Updated: A Florida lawyer has been charged with contempt of court for allegedly violating a judge’s order not to disclose transcripts of recorded telephone conversations involving a jailhouse informant.
Palm Beach County Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey appeared in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing on the charge, which is punishable by up to six months in jail, the Palm Beach Post reports.
Ramsey is accused of violating Circuit Judge Jack Schramm Cox’s Nov. 30 order prohibiting anyone from publishing or disclosing transcripts of convicted murderer and jailhouse informant Frederick Cobia’s recorded phone calls from jail since his arrest in 2009. The judge’s decision was based on Cobia’s attorney’s assertion that Cobia’s privacy rights would otherwise be violated. As a consequence of this order, the Post was forced to remove transcripts they had previously posted on their website, and quotes that had been used in an October article.
Ramsey is charged with misdemeanor criminal contempt, based on allegations about a transcript of a deposition Ramsey conducted with Cobia, which she filed with the court on Dec. 11. Cobia is expected to be a star witness in the first-degree murder trial of Ramsey’s client, Jamal Smith, in the 2011 shooting death of another man. Cobia has already testified for the prosecution in two other murder trials. He is scheduled to testify in three more, and has been listed as a witness for the prosecution in 23 other cases in a 2½ year period, the Post reports. The transcripts of Cobia’s jailhouse phone calls had initially been introduced to support Ramsey’s claim that Cobia has received special treatment in return for his testimony against her client and others, according to an earlier article from the Post.
It was Cobia’s attorney Valerie Masters who asked for the contempt charge against Ramsey. Masters claims that the deposition includes quotes from transcripts of the phone calls covered by Cox’s order.
The judge’s order, while directed specifically at the Post, applies to any person in possession of the recordings, even for the purpose of court filings. On Tuesday, the Post successfully appealed the judge’s order, and the 4th District Court of Appeal quashed (PDF) Cox’s order as overbroad, the newspaper reports.
But Ramsey’s lawyer, Donnie Murrell, told the Post that the contempt charge against Ramsey would survive a ruling overturning the judge’s order.
“They can still pursue [the contempt charge] because technically you can’t disobey a judge’s order whether it’s lawful or not,” he said.
Ramsey declined comment but said in court papers that she had no intention of violating the judge’s order. She also said the deposition she filed did not include any passages from the transcripts of Cobia’s recorded conversations.
Related articles:
ABAJournal.com: “Florida appeals courts quashes judge’s order that Palm Beach Post unpublish online transcripts”
ABAJournal.com: “Judge orders Florida newspaper to unpublish information on its website”
Updated on Dec. 22 after the 4th District Court of Appeals quashed Judge Cox’s order.
