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Who's Sorry Now?

Continued from page 3

Published on October 24, 2007 at 3:41pm

Asked if he thought there would be further arrests of journalists, Lacey replied, "The way that this operates is that they select someone to make an example out of, and they selected our organization. Hopefully, other media organizations will begin to speak up and speak out about what's going on here."

(One other New Times staff member was harassed, though not arrested, that night. On the morning of October 18, writer Ray Stern had been at the law offices of Michelle Iafrate in Phoenix, reviewing a stack of press releases — which the MCSO had e-mailed to other news organizations yet refused to mail to New Times. Stern began to photograph the public documents with a digital camera, and Iafrate demanded that he leave, saying it was somehow improper to take pictures of public records. Stern protested and then left, only to be hit with a citation for disorderly conduct that evening by more plainclothes deputies. The charge against him is still pending.)

Although it was too early for the veritable tsunami of indignation that was to follow, Channel 3's Mike Watkiss was on the air soon after Lacey's release calling the abusive grand jury subpoena and the subsequent arrests the biggest story in Arizona journalism since the assassination of Don Bolles.

Asked about that comment after the fact, Lacey smiled and said, "That's a little grand for me, but I like good writing when I see it."


As daylight broke, word of the arrests spread quickly. New Times' offices were inundated with queries from the media. TV cameras showed up unannounced at our front door. Phones of editors, reporters, and other staff buzzed incessantly.

The significance of what had just happened was immediately recognized by broadcast and print news organizations large and small. From the New York Times and blogs like Gawker to the Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune, the tale proved irresistible. After all, how many times in recent history have an American editor and publisher been jailed for a piece they penned?

That's more like something that occurs in Myanmar, Iran, or Venezuela. Not in the United States, where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution.

Regardless of political affiliation, almost everyone but the most die-hard Arpaio-lovers blasted what they deemed an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.

Clint Bolick, director of the conservative Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, issued a statement, saying, "Regardless of one's ordinary proclivities regarding the players involved, there is only one place for friends of freedom to stand at this moment: shoulder to shoulder with the New Times."

Reason magazine declared online that Arpaio's investigation "looks an awfully lot like retaliation" and called the grand jury subpoena "probably unconstitutional."

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts stated on her blog that "Grand jury probes are secret and for good reason" as "a grand jury may investigate a person or entity and decide not to bring charges." If the whole thing's kept under wraps, the reputation of the target is protected. But in this case, the targets were themselves putting out the information.

"If anyone is harmed, as a result, it's [New Times]," Roberts stated, adding, "Unless, of course, the sheriff comes off looking like a kangaroo cop . . . and [the] prosecutor looks just plain heavy-handed and drunk with power."

Gawker.com, a frequent and often acerbic critic of the Village Voice in New York, quoted Voice editor Tony Ortega's plea, "I hope that, whatever other journalists think about the Voice or VVM, they can see that this represents one of the worst abuses of a newspaper's First Amendment rights in memory." Gawker's blogger responded with, "Gotta say, we can't disagree with that."

USA Today, the Washington Post, and Editor and Publisher published stories on the arrests. TV and radio stations provided hourly updates to viewers and listeners. The AP noted that Village Voice Media is "the nation's largest publisher of alternative weekly newspapers with 16 papers and a combined circulation of 1.8 million."

New Times has been deluged with letters to the editor and comments on the original Lacey-Larkin piece and on blog items about developments in the story. Some readers dared the trio to arrest them, too.

"I am appalled that your media executives were arrested for publishing a story which the public has every right to know about," wrote one reader. "This sheriff is clearly abusing his authority. He is the one who should be in jail. And if the prosecutor wants to subpoena me as a reader, I'd be glad to come to Arizona at his expense, just for the privilege of telling him to take a hike!"

Wrote another, "Wow. Thank you for bringing to light this egregious abuse of power. Cockroaches hate the light!"

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard called Lacey with words of encouragement.

"He said it sort of reminded him of the old days," Lacey related. "And that it was as important a story that New Times had ever undertaken."

The piling-on continued after Thomas dropped the charges.

Jack Shafer, editor at large for the online magazine Slate, advised County Attorney Thomas, "Never pick a fight with people who buy their whiskey by the truckload, their ink by the tanker, and their pixels at wholesale."

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