More on the Demorris Lee case :
First, to refresh your memories :
Published: November 18, 2004
Last Updated: November 18, 2004
Mr. James E. Hardin Jr.
District Attorney
Durham Co. Judicial Building
201 East Main Street, 6th Floor
Durham, NC 27701
Dear Mr. Hardin,
On behalf of the American Society of Newspapers Editors, I am writing to protest the recent arrest of Raleigh News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee.
As you know, Mr. Lee was charged with making harassing telephone calls after leaving two voice messages on the home answering machine of an individual from whom he sought comment for a news story. If the facts in this case are as we understand them, it is Mr. Lee who is being subjected to harassment by legal authorities as a result of doing his job as a reporter. Surely it cannot be illegal for a journalist to make a good faith effort to seek fair comment for a news story.
We also find the timing of Mr. Lee's arrest curious. Ruth A. Brown, employed by the Durham Police Department, filed her complaint against Mr. Lee and an arrest warrant was issued on Oct. 22. But Mr. Lee was not arrested until Sunday, Nov. 14, which was several days after he had filed a request with the Durham Police Department seeking additional public records in a case involving one of its employees, Ms. Brown.
Speaking for the hundreds of member editors of ASNE, we condemn this arrest in the strongest terms. Based on the facts as we know them, it is an affront to the First Amendment and constitutes an unwarranted attack on a reporter who was seeking to interview an individual to ensure accuracy and fairness.
We insist that these charges be dropped immediately.
Sincerely,
Karla Garrett Harshaw
ASNE President
Editor, Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun
cc: Chief Steven W. Chalmers
Judge Orlando F. Hudson, Jr.
related background stories :
http://www.nabj.org/front/story/856p-1358c.html
Lee said he left two voice messages on Oct. 17 for Brown, and may also have contacted a relative when he reached a woman who told him that he had the wrong number for a Ruth Brown.
Three weeks ago, Brown filed a complaint with the Durham County magistrate's office alleging that Lee was harassing her with phone calls. A warrant for Lee's arrest was executed based on the complaint's allegations.
At about 8 a.m. Sunday, Raleigh police arrived at Lee's Raleigh home. He was frisked, handcuffed, placed in the back seat of the police cruiser and driven to the Wake County jail in downtown Raleigh. While in custody, Lee's belt, shoelaces and other items were temporarily confiscated. He was fingerprinted and later released on his own recognizance.
http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/041124_prince/
District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. of Durham, N.C., announced Tuesday that he would not prosecute Raleigh reporter Demorris Lee, who had been charged with making harassing phone calls in the course of pursuing a story. His arrest drew condemnation from leading journalism organizations as a threat to press freedom.
"Hardin said in a written statement that he would file to have the charges against News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee dismissed, because, 'The State of North Carolina cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt all the essential elements of this alleged crime'," as Michael Petrocelli wrote in the Durham Herald-Sun.
(see next article for the updated info)
Now, it seems that Brown was involved in a police scandal :
December 16, 2004
HEADLINE : Auctions little aid to schools; In Durham, police sales pay overtime
In most Triangle law enforcement shops, police auctions are good for children. The public buys things that were confiscated during arrests and searches, and the profits go to local schools.
But at the Durham Police Department, the sales are good for a few employees.
Most of the money goes to pay overtime to workers who set up the auction.
In the past three years, 79 percent of the Durham auction proceeds have gone to expenses, mostly overtime. . .
Wake County schools get about 70 percent of auction money from the Wake sheriff and Raleigh police.
The Durham Sheriff's Office reports that nearly all of its proceeds go to the schools, though it hasn't had an auction in years.
Chapel Hill police spend a lot on advertising, so they send only 37 percent of the take to the schools.
In the Durham Police Department, the lion's share of the overtime pay has gone to one property room technician, Ruth A. Brown, who got $26,169.62 in salary and benefits from the past five auctions. That's 51 percent of the $51,237 that the auctions grossed.
Brown declined to answer questions about the auctions. But several years ago, she testified about overtime pay at the trial of Erick Daniels, a teenager charged with breaking into her home and robbing her at gunpoint of $6,000. . .
(snip)
At one Durham police auction, on Oct. 27, 2001, Brown and her colleagues put in so many hours that the Durham police actually lost money, city records show.
The auction pulled in $9,961.50, and the department spent $9,618.56 on overtime, with $8,217.01 going to Brown. After the cost of an auctioneer and legal notices to advertise the auction, the department lost $957.51.
Brown was in the news after she filed a criminal complaint in October against News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, charging him with harassment. Lee had been trying to contact Brown while reporting on Daniels' contention that he did not rob Brown.
Before he was arrested, Lee tried to interview Brown and requested records of her overtime pay from the Durham police. District Attorney Jim Hardin has dismissed the charges against Lee.
(snip)
Chalmers suggested that his department probably was understaffed in the property room compared with other big departments in the Triangle, but the numbers don't bear out his hunch.