Travis Armstrong takes the stand

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER
Defense attorneys questioned three former News-Press employees, a former LAPD deputy chief of police and the current News-Press editorial page editor during yesterday’s federal hearing into alleged labor law violations at the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Starshine Roshell and Melissa Evans returned to the stand — both for brief stretches of time — and Rob Kuznia made his first appearance in the trial, testifying for about an hour during the morning session. Travis Armstrong closed out the hearing, which will resume a week from Monday.

Roshell, a former News-Press columnist, took the stand first and News-Press attorney Cappello immediately focused on the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade in June 2007, displaying a photograph of Roshell participating in the event and preparing to question her.
However, National Labor Relations Board attorney Brian Gee immediately objected. Evidence to deny the reinstatement of Roshell’s column, Gee argued, is not relevant, since reinstatement of the column is not being sought by the NLRB with regards to Roshell.
Gee said although the Board is charging the News-Press with terminating her column in retaliation for her union support, the remedy is only a broad cease and desist order.
The photograph Cappello planned to question Roshell about depicted her walking with the Santa Barbara Independent float, carrying a blond Barbie doll in a pair of barbecue tongs. Cappello also tried to ask Roshell about the group of people with masks over their faces walking with the same float to determine if they are plaintiffs in the hearing.
Judge William Kocol reminded Cappello that he will not allow him to fish for after-acquired evidence that may affect reinstatement rights, but only to question witnesses on evidence he has already obtained.
Kuznia took the stand next and confirmed that he had received a bonus in 2006. Cappello then started to focus on whether Kuznia had a conversation with former reporter Dawn Hobbs about the legality of affixing a banner on the Anapamu Street footbridge before a group of newsroom employees engaged in a protest on the pedestrian overpass.
Judge Kocol, visibly exasperated with that line of questioning, asked Cappello to focus his questions on more central issues in the case.
Kuznia then testified that the traffic on Highway 101 below the footbridge had varied over the hour they held the signs and banners, sometimes moving at 70 miles per hour, other times “log-jammed.”
Cappello then turned to the issue of the “peeps” e-mail, as it is now referred to in court. At the onset of the hearing yesterday, union attorney Ira Gottlieb handed Cappello a stack of documents that Kuznia had sent to him on August 13, including the “peeps” message. Gottlieb explained that he had not noticed Kuznia’s e-mail until Thursday.
“I can’t simply just turn my head to what occurred regarding this series of e-mails,” Cappello said to the judge. “...I can’t tell you how difficult it is to try a case when key pieces of evidence relevant to a charge are not produced.”
The message in question relates to an attempt by newsroom employees to deliver a letter to News-Press owner and copublisher Wendy McCaw. Cappello has argued that the event was noisy and disruptive, grounds for the suspension notices that employees received, which were never enforced. Federal attorneys maintain that the event was quiet and professional, charging the News-Press with threatening employees with suspensions in retaliation for their union activity.
A hearing into subpoena compliance based on the “peeps” e-mail and another message referred to as the “blitzkrieg” e-mail is expected to take place on September 24, when the trial resumes.
Kuznia testified under questioning by Cappello that he had not seen the “peeps” e-mail while initially gathering documents to respond to a subpoena. He also testified that after going back through his e-mail account, he did not see the “blitzkrieg” e-mail and did not recall it specifically.
“I’m sure I read it,” Kuznia said, adding, “It’s like over a year ago.”
News-Press attorney Matthew Clarke took over for Cappello as Daniel R. Sullivan, a former LAPD deputy chief of police and owner of a security and law enforcement consulting firm, took the stand to serve as an expert witness for the defense.
After running through Sullivan’s impressive list of law enforcement credentials, Clarke offered him as an expert to testify to the legality of affixing a banner to a freeway overpass and the appropriate law enforcement response. However, Gee objected based on the fact that Sullivan had little personal experience with street and highway codes.
Judge Kocol agreed with Gee, stating that Sullivan did not appear to have enough understanding of the “niche issue” of hanging banners from overpasses. After permitting Clarke two more attempts at proving Sullivan’s credentials, the judge rejected him as an expert witness.
Clarke then provided an offer of proof as to what Sullivan would have testified to, explaining that he would have said the hanging of a banner over a freeway constitutes a misdemeanor offense and the responsible parties would be cited by law enforcement.
Judge Kocol also rejected that offer and asked for clarification on the whole issue of affixing a banner to the bridge as an area of litigation in the hearing. Cappello indicated that McCaw will take the stand to testify in part that employees who committed such an offense, which Cappello characterized as illegal, dangerous and a potential cause of traffic accidents, would be subject to termination.
Judge Kocol overruled objections by the prosecution, stating that he will let the matter play out.
Cappello then called former reporter Melinda Burns to the stand for a few moments to confirm that a statement she made following her firing had aired on a local public access cable channel. The defense attorney said the statement constitutes after-acquired evidence that will determine Burns’ reinstatement and back pay rights.
Current News-Press editorial page editor Travis Armstrong replaced Burns on the witness stand for the last hour of testimony. Cappello led Armstrong through a brief overview of his background in journalism, which included positions at the Portland Oregonian and the San Jose Mercury News before he came to the News-Press in January 2002.
Armstrong then explained how he took over as acting publisher for a month while McCaw and copublisher Arthur von Weisenberger took a vacation in the summer of 2006. When asked why she appointed him that task, Armstrong said, “I think she trusted me.”
Cappello then asked Armstrong about former editor-in-chief Jerry Roberts, focusing on the time Roberts spent as both publisher and editor of the newspaper. Armstrong confirmed that Roberts had control over both the advertising and news sections of the publication.
Cappello argued to the court that such a conflict between the business and news sides mirrors the situation when Armstrong headed both the newsroom and the opinion section during his month as acting publisher, seen by many as the impetus for mass resignations and the unionization effort at the News-Press.
“I never heard one complaint,” Armstrong said when asked if employees had decried Roberts’ position as both publisher and editor.
Cappello then asked Armstrong if the publisher of the News-Press has the absolute right to control the content of the newspaper. After he answered affirmatively, Judge Kocol pressed him for an explanation.
“Ms. McCaw owns the newspaper,” Armstrong responded.
Armstrong’s testimony then turned to the “Rob Lowe incident” in which the address of a lot in Montecito where the actor wanted to build a home was published in the pages of the News-Press.
Armstrong said a difference exists between broadcasting the address on a local public access channel and printing it in the News-Press, explaining that the address was not only published in the largest newspaper in the Santa Barbara area, but will remain in the News-Press archives forever.
Armstrong also testified that McCaw issuing a statement reprimanding the editors and staff writer responsible for the story and ordering that celebrity addresses should not be printed was not a breach of journalistic integrity or ethics.
Armstrong will return to the stand on September 24 at 9 a.m. when the trial resumes at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court building on State Street.