Media Fight Reporter's Subpoena in Deputy Shooting Case

The attorney general's decision to subpoena Deseret News reporter Pat Reavy in connection with the Jan. 5 shooting death of Millard County Sheriff's Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox is a case of misplaced frustration, according to an attorney seeking to quash the subpoena on behalf of the Deseret News , The Salt Lake Tribune and other news media.

At issue is a Jan. 20 story Reavy wrote after obtaining a search warrant issued to Salt Lake City police in their efforts to locate two suspects in the shooting after they fled Millard County.

Police released the search warrant -- which revealed new information about the man suspected in the shooting, Roberto Miramontes Roman -- after Reavy filed a Government Records Access Management Act request.

Now prosecutors want to question Reavy about "his decision to publish the contents of our sealed search warrant ..." according to a March 17 e-mail from Assistant Utah Attorney General Pat Nolan to media attorney Jeffrey Hunt.

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Subpoena Bill Passes Over Bipartisan Opposition

The Utah Senate lent its support this morning to a bill giving new subpoena powers to prosecutors in child kidnapping and stalking cases. It allows them to demand the personal and financial information of suspects from Internet and telephone providers without needing a warrant. Republican Senator John Valentine, an attorney, said he opposed the bill at first, but now supports it.

“…because it is a balance between the rights of privacy, those constitutional rights that have been guaranteed by the courts, and the need to expeditiously find where your child is,” he said.

Proponents of the legislation believe prosecutors and the Attorney General need a new tool to find out who’s behind the cloak of anonymity the Internet provides. But it’s opposed by a wide variety of people, ranging from XMission President Pete Ashdown to leaders of the Sutherland Institute, who believe it’s an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

Senate Minority Whip Ross Romero fears the bill could lead to abuses. As an attorney himself, he said it isn’t too much to ask for prosecutors to get a warrant.

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