Daily Sound hands over photos

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Photographs taken by the Santa Barbara Daily Sound of a March 14 crime scene were turned over to the the Santa Barbara County Superior Court yesterday by Jeramy Gordon, the paper’s editor and publisher, who cited escalating legal fees as the main reason for complying with Judge Brian Hill’s order to do so.
Since receiving three subpoenas by Deputy Public Defender Karen Atkins in early July requesting the 144 photographs be handed over, Gordon publicly refused to do so, repeatedly saying the issue was one of the utmost importance to not only the Daily Sound, but the entire media establishment and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“This is a sad day for journalism and for our rights as Americans,” Gordon said. “This newspaper was singled out because [Atkins] knew we didn’t have the resources to fight her fishing expedition.”


On Monday, Hill ordered Gordon and the paper’s Co-Publisher Charles Swegles, who took the subpoenaed photos, to turn them over to the courts by 4 p.m. today. Failing to do so Hill said, would result in a contempt of court charge.
Hill said if he could not hold the Daily Sound in contempt of court due to the California Journalist Shield Law, he would possibly bar any Daily Sound reporters or photographers from his courtroom.
In an interview on Monday, Gordon said he would go to jail in order to protect the journalistic principle that unpublished material should not be used to aid any organization, including the law and government.
Gordon said jail time would be less likely outcome than steep fines charged by the court, that coupled with escalating legal fees, would put the paper out of business.
“Jail time is the least of my worries. If the judge were to combine fines with mounting legal fees, the Daily Sound would be out of business within a month,” Gordon said. “We have to pick our battles and pursuing this was just not worth the risk.”
The photographs were delivered to the court yesterday by the Daily Sound’s attorney Michael Cooney.
Along with the handful of photographs taken on March 14 on State Street in the minutes and hours after 15-year-old Luis Angel Linares was stabbed to death, Gordon published about 40 additional photographs in today’s paper.
“I feel that if we have to turn over these photographs to the public defender, they should also be made available to the public,” Gordon said. “That is why we have decided to print as many of the photographs as we can in Friday’s paper.”
Atkins issued the subpoenas to the Daily Sound in early July after her client, 14-year-old Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez’s picture was published in the paper. In the picture, Juarez is sitting on a State Street curb in handcuffs with several other youths.
The day after the photograph was published for the first time, Atkins threatened the Daily Sound with a gag order.
Gordon maintains Atkins’ subpoenas were issued as a form of “retaliation” for publishing Juarez’s picture.
During an interview with the Daily Sound in mid July, Atkins called Gordon’s claim “ridiculous.”
Atkins has said she believes the unpublished Daily Sound photos “are likely to show people and circumstances not recorded in other media and will therefore assist in the preparation” of Juarez’s defense.
Atkins has not subpoenaed any other local media outlets, most of whom were at the scene along with the Daily Sound.
When Hill ordered the paper to turn over the photos on Monday, he noted the defendant’s right to a speedy, fair, public trial, as specified in the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Every bit of evidence that sheds light on what took place [on March 14] is important,” Hill said. “This is a search for justice and truth. All the factors weigh in favor of disclosure.”
Despite Hill’s order, Gordon and Cooney worried handing the photos over would have broader First Amendment implications and could create a “chilling effect” in the media world.
“I really think it [Hill’s decision] operates to stifle the press from taking photographs of crime scenes if what they think they’re doing is preparing testimony for parties in a criminal case,” Cooney said on Monday. “The losers are the public because the public is going to have less access to information about some of the crimes we’re most concerned about.”
Gordon said he looks forward to moving on and continuing the paper’s drive to provide the Santa Barbara community with local news.
“It’s more important that we keep providing Santa Barbara with hard-hitting local news, than risk going out of business standing up to Atkins,” Gordon said. “She attacked us for a reason, because we’re small and she knew she had a better chance of getting away with it.”