Gag orders

A California judge on Wednesday ordered The Ventura County Star to halt publication of an article about a man accused of killing a six-year-old-boy last year. The article contained information that was under seal but accidentally provided to The Star.

The Orange County Register has agreed to a $22 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by its newspaper carriers over their compensation, the newspaper reported.

The California Court of Appeal yesterday ordered a lower court to vacate an unprecedented order that prevented The Orange County Register from reporting on testimony in a lawsuit involving its parent company, Freedom Communications, Inc.

A man in Illinois accused of killing eight people complained to The Associated Press in a jailhouse interview Tuesday that his trial isn't happening quickly enough. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the public defenders representing him.

On Wednesday, the judge slapped a gag order on the case.

The judge presiding over the trial of United States District Judge Samuel Kent issued a broad gag order Friday, prohibiting court staff, lawyers and “all other witnesses expected to be called by either side” from giving out non-public information that could interfere with a fair trial.  

Kent was indicted in August on charges of abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse.  He is the first federal judge to be indicted for federal sex crimes, and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of $250,000. 

On behalf of three Flint, Mich. police officers who say they were punished for breaching an agency rule barring them from speaking to the media, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking to have the ban thrown out, The Flint Journal reports.

According to WNEM news, Chief David Dicks imposed the order prohibiting officers from speaking with reporters.

A federal trial court judge in Boston lifted a gag order preventing three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students from disclosing security flaws in Boston’s public transportation ticketing system, according to the Associated Press.  

Tennessee investigative reporter Phil Williams, who is scheduled to testify against a former senator, and his news station are challenging a federal judge’s gag order preventing Williams from covering the story.

Williams and NewsChannel 5 argued in their petition last Thursday that the gag order is an unconstitutional prior restraint of free speech and free press, in violation of the First Amendment.

Strafford County Superior Court Judge Peter Fauver issued a gag order Thursday banning lawyers from talking to the media about a trial surrounding a former New Hampshire congressional candidate’s car accident.

Fauver issued the order after the Portsmouth Herald published a statement in which defense attorney J.P. Nadeau discussed a taped interview that the jury heard during the trial.

A U.S. district court judge denied a gag order request that would have banned the parents of an 8-year-old boy from talking to the media about a lawsuit stemming from a ski collision near Denver.

Judge Michael J. Watanabe denied 60-year-old David Pfahler’s request to prevent Scott Swimm’s parents from talking about the case with the media, or to anyone who would talk with the media.