SAN FRANCISCO: Magistrate will mediate case of jailed blogger

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/14/7 | Bob Egelko

[SmithL]

A federal judge assigned a magistrate as a mediator Tuesday to try to resolve the case of Josh Wolf, the blogger who has been in prison nearly six months for refusing to turn over a videotape of an anarchist protest to a federal grand jury.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who held Wolf in contempt of court in August and has rejected several defense requests to free him, said in a brief order that he was referring the case to U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero "in the interest of reaching a resolution satisfactory to both sides.''

Alsup did not mention any basis for a possible settlement or otherwise explain his order. Neither the U.S. attorney's office nor Wolf had requested mediation. Dan Siegel, a lawyer for Wolf, said he was "pleased but mystified'' by the order.

Wolf, 24, an activist and freelance video journalist, filmed part of a July 2005 protest in San Francisco's Mission District against an international economic conference in Scotland. During the demonstration, a police officer was hit in the head and suffered a fractured skull, and someone allegedly tried to set a city police car on fire with a bottle rocket.

The federal grand jury is investigating the possibility that the attack on the police car was a federal crime because the Police Department receives funding from Washington. Some of Wolf's video was shown on local television, but he has refused to release the outtakes to federal authorities. Wolf says they contain no evidence of a crime and that he is unwilling to assist the prosecution.

Wolf became the longest-imprisoned journalist for contempt of court in U.S. history Feb. 6, his 169th day at the federal prison in Dublin. He could be held until July, when the grand jury's term expires, or for an additional six months

[SmithL]

Curiouser and curiouser.

Wolf is not a Journalist, but rather an anarchist and a terror supporter with a camera.

[quietolong]

No this is a attack on the 1st.

[perfect stranger]

But he's still an anarchist and a terror supporter with a camera.

[quietolong]

Courts for years have ruled that Journalist need not turn over any film/video that has not aired. That is until Bush’s boy’s showed up They have been doing a unrelated attacks on the first. He only needs to turn over the part that has been shown on TV. What he is irrelevant.