City issues subpoenas for Seattle Times reporters

SEATTLE – Stepping on highly questionable legal ground, the city has issued subpoenas to three reporters for the Seattle Times, demanding that they identify confidential sources cited in stories about police misconduct.

City Attorney Thomas A. Carr said Friday the information would help the city defend itself from defamation claims brought by a fired officer.

But the attempt to get it by subpoena runs directly counter to the state’s new reporter shield law, which explicitly prohibits subpoenas compelling reporters to turn over their notes or confidential sources, as well as federal precedent that reporters do not have to reveal such information unless all other means of obtaining it have been exhausted and it is clearly relevant to the case at hand.

The decision prompted a call from state Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, that Gov. Chris Gregoire fire Carr as head of the state’s “Sunshine Committee,” which is looking at ways to strengthen open records laws. The governor’s spokesman, Lloyd Brown, said Gregoire was “troubled by the story.”

“We need some time to talk to Tom Carr,” Brown said. “What’s troubling about the situation is the appearance of the person who’s heading the Sunshine Committee challenging the … shield law.”

Carr argued that delivering the subpoenas – even if a judge doesn’t force the Times to comply – could help the city show a jury that it took all possible steps to prove that the officer was not defamed.

“I’m not saying we’d take this to the Supreme Court, and we certainly don’t want reporters to go to jail,” Carr said. “We’re going to defend (the articles) as true, but it would be nice if the Times would help us out on this.”

The newspaper on Thursday asked Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, who is presiding on the officer’s case, for a protective order stating that the reporters do not have to turn over their sources.

“We’re actually quite confident we’ll get that and that we’ll not have to reveal our sources,” Times Executive Editor David Boardman said Friday.

If the issuance of the subpoenas is “some sort of legal strategy,” he added, “I’m offended that the city attorney would try to use us and the First Amendment in that way.”