FC: Police arrest newspaper editor for criticizing Florida cops

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Police in Key West, Flordia have arrested a newspaper editor for printing 
an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to 
an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors 
should be widely denounced.

As of this afternoon, the Key West newspaper's site at kwest.com was still 
up (I read what appears to be one of the articles in question at 
http://kwest.net/~kwtn/local_news/01-06-15-KWTN-FDLE_Investigating_Police_Internal_Scandal.html). 
But while the server is still alive -- it responds to ping requests -- 
connections to port 80 are now refused. Unfortunately, the article is no 
longer in my cache.

It looks like the editor, Dennis Cooper, is being prosecuted for allegedly 
violating a state law. Under Florida law, it's a crime to disclose 
information about a police investigation -- even if you're the person who 
had filed a complaint alleging police wrongdoing, as Cooper seems to have done.

You can find contact information for Key West officials here:
http://www.keywestcity.com/directory.html
http://www.keywestcity.com/depts/police/policetelephone.html

I've copied the mayor, the chief of police, and other officials. If they 
would care to reply, I would be happy to extend them the usual courtesy of 
distributing their response unedited.

If anyone puts up a mirror site with the article, please let me know. And I 
urge you to write to the city officials copied above. (BTW I have verified 
that the below article did run on the AP wire.)

-Declan

---

From: Eric Cordian <emc () artifact psychedelic net>
Subject: Journalist Arresting for Criticizing Cops
To: cypherpunks () einstein ssz com
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:58:05 -0700 (PDT)

In today's news of the truly odd.

-----

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- A newspaper editor and publisher was arrested for
publishing an article alleging a cover-up in an internal police
investigation he had filed an official complaint about, police records
show.

Dennis Cooper, 66, editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, was
arrested Friday and released two hours later on his own recognizance.

The affidavit for his arrest cites a Florida statute that makes it a
misdemeanor for anyone involved in an internal police investigation to
disclose information before it has been entered into public record.

Cooper has alleged a police lieutenant lied in court about a 1996 stop of
a bicyclist, and that the Key West Police Department covered it up.

He filed a complaint last month with the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement accusing an internal affairs investigator of falsifying
information about his review of the incident.

[...]

---

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0112/SEC533.HTM&Title=->2000->Ch0112->Section%20533
> (4) Any person who is a participant in an internal investigation, 
> including the complainant, the subject of the investigation, the 
> investigator conducting the investigation, and any witnesses in the 
> investigation, who willfully discloses any information obtained pursuant 
> to the agency's investigation, including, but not limited to, the identity 
> of the officer under investigation, the nature of the questions asked, 
> information revealed, or documents furnished in connection with a 
> confidential internal investigation of an agency, before such complaint, 
> document, action, or proceeding becomes a public record as provided in 
> this section commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as 
> provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. However, this subsection does not 
> limit a law enforcement or correctional officer's ability to gain access 
> to information under paragraph (2)(a). Additionally, a sheriff, police 
> chief, or other head of a law enforcement agency, or his or her designee, 
> is not precluded by this section from acknowledging the existence of a 
> complaint and the fact that an investigation is underway.

http://legal.firn.edu/justice/01law.PDF
> Unauthorized disclosure penalties: Section 112.533(4), F.S., makes it a 
> first degree misdemeanor for any person who is a participant in an 
> internal investigation to willfully disclose any information obtained 
> pursuant to the agency's investigation before such information becomes a 
> public record. However, the subsection "does not limit a law enforcement 
> or correctional officer's ability to gain access to information under 
> paragraph (2)(a)."92




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