Media Execs Arrested for Revealing Grand Jury Subpoenas

First Amendment

Media Execs Arrested for Revealing Grand Jury Subpoenas

Posted Oct 19, 2007, 07:56 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: Two executives who founded an alternative weekly newspaper were arrested last night for publishing a story in The Phoenix New Times that revealed grand jury secrets.

They were released by 4 a.m. this morning, according to the Phoenix New Times blog, which continues to post updates.

A lawyer for the parent company, Village Voice Media, said the arrests of executive editor Michael Lacey and chief executive Jim Larkin were part of an escalating battle between the newspaper and Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the New York Times reports.

The article that prompted the arrests revealed that a special prosecutor had subpoenaed the company and some of its employees in a probe of the publication’s decision to post Arpaio’s home address on its Web site. The subpoena also seeks identifying information about readers who looked at the Web site.

“The arrests were not totally unexpected, but they represent an act of revenge and a vindictive response on the part of an out-of-control sheriff,” Village Voice lawyer Steve Suskin told the New York Times.

The Phoenix New Times blog story on the incident contains a headline complete with an exclamation point and a promise of “more on this outrageous abuse of power” as it develops. In different posts it variously describes the special prosecutor in the grand jury case as a “junkyard attack schnauzer” and "an unhinged cat's paw."

ABA Journal - Law News Now

First Amendment