We’ll never know the answers to these questions, but I have to wonder…
Would Shawn Cripple have allowed a reporter and photographer to document his extreme motorcycle stunts had he known they would testify against him in trial?
Would Shawn Cripple and his gang of stuntmen still be terrorizing Route 8 motorists without the July 14th story?
My guess?
No, he never would have allowed it. And without Cripple’s cooperation, there may not have been a story, and most certainly there would not have been photographs.
And without that, we’d all still be driving Route 8 looking over our shoulders, wondering when the next ninja-wheelie-wacko would go screaming past us.
Until the story appeared, the Akron police admitted they could not stop the extreme motorcyclists. Now those cyclists are gone. No matter whether you liked the story or not, you have to admit there was a direct cause and effect — this story halted the activity.
This whole episode has textbook written all over it. In two columns in the week following the story, I wrote about the disconnect between the paper’s intention to shed light on a problem and the reading public’s negative reaction to the story.
More than 100 people had called to complain. Nearly 30 letters to the editor opposed the story. In my columns, I acknowledged that the message sent was not the message received, a problem with how the story was presented.
Now the case becomes textbook for a different reason. Akron Municipal Court Judge Lynne Callahan recently forced the Akron Beacon Journal to assist the police and prosecutors in their case against Cripple. The paper resisted the subpoenas, but Callahan insisted that the testimony of the reporter and photographer was essential to the prosecutor’s case.
So they testified. They did so reluctantly.
You ask, why should any responsible citizen hesitate to help law enforcement? After all, along with our rights, don’t we all have duties?
The answer is, no, not really. Lawyers have a “privilege,” otherwise people wouldn’t have a secure place to get legal advice. Doctors have a “privilege.” That’s done to protect the most private of personal information.
What about the media? It’s debatable. The Constitution protects the freedom of the press, and courts have extended that to include the right to gather and report the news.
However, that ambiguous form of privilege is limited. Journalists can be forced to testify when the information is relevant, essential to the administration of justice and when all other means of obtaining the information are exhausted.
Usually, journalistic privilege involves confidential sources. In Ohio, reporters can refuse to reveal the identity of confidential sources.
In this case, there were no promises made and no confidentiality to guard. Instead, the prosecutors wanted to make their case on the basis of what the journalists learned while doing their jobs.
The paper argued against it. Prosecutors and defense attorneys routinely seek unpublished photographs and the testimony of reporters about things they see and hear. In most cases, the paper fights those requests and the courts agree.
Judge Callahan said this case was different, though, and compelled the journalists to testify.
Different? Yes, this case was different. For a case involving traffic misdemeanors, it was handled by not one, but two prosecutors, including the city’s chief prosecutor. It wasn’t only the newspaper that was inundated with calls from unhappy citizens.
It also was different because of the shocking photos and open admission by the cyclists that they performed dangerous stunts on public highways. You don’t see that often.
Those photos, which seemed to raise the most ire with readers, were taken by a Beacon Journal photographer who was tagging along with one of Cripple’s friends. The friend was videotaping the stunts.
Did the city subpoena that videotape? No, it didn’t. Does that sound like the city exhausted every other means of getting the same information? Not to me.
In the end, the paper complied with the judge’s orders and the journalists testified last week to what they saw, when they saw it and who they saw doing it. Callahan is expected to issue a verdict Tuesday.
Based on my calls, I believe most people not only want Cripple convicted, they also want him to serve jail time, which is unlikely, given the charge.
Even knowing the strong public interest, I still believe the real losers in this case are the people who want to maintain a free and independent press.
When the media are viewed as agents of police and prosecutors, the free flow of information gets constricted.
When people aren’t sure whether journalists are working for the government, significant news gets stifled.
When reporters aren’t allowed to say no to a prosecutor’s demands, important stories don’t get published because sources won’t step forward.
And that hurts all of us.
