SPRING 2006 NEWSLETTER
GEORGIA FOI ACCESS
GEORGIA FIRST AMENDMENT FOUNDATION

AROUND THE SOUTH

Arkansas high court reverses judge’s order banning coverage
of the testimony at a 2005 hearing that alleged his misconduct

Little Rock, Ark., Feb. 22, 2006 -- A circuit court judge's restraining order prohibiting The Helena Daily World from publishing testimony alleging the judge's misconduct improperly chilled the newspaper's First Amendment rights, the state's high court ruled.

Phillips County Circuit Judge L.T. Simes II failed to prove that restraining the Daily World's speech was needed to prevent a clear and imminent threat to the fair administration of justice. In January 2005, he had ordered the parties, their attorneys, the Daily World, and all persons present at the open hearing not to communicate "in any fashion whatsoever . . . any information heard or received at the said hearing," a seven-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Arkansas ruled. "Although we are sensitive to the concerns raised by the respondent, we find that, in this particular case, they are insufficient to counterbalance the public interest in the knowledge of what has transpired at judicial proceedings that are open to the public," Justice Betty C. Dickey wrote for the court. Simes' order came during a hearing in a highly publicized case between West Helena Mayor Johnny Weaver and the city council over Weaver's attempt to oust the city's police chief. In the hearing, Weaver requested to have Judge Simes recused from the case. He alleged that Simes had improperly started conversations with him about the case without the opposing party present in which the judge asked the mayor to deal leniently with the police chief, and had an interest in a radio station that broadcast council meetings.

Source: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

TEXAS

County judges ordered to release e-mail with lawyer;
‘Pretty shocking in terms of how lawyer could be treated’

Brazos County, Tex., March 1, 2006 -- Four judges must turn over to a newspaper e-mail between themselves and a lawyer under a rule that is the judicial equivalent of the state open records law.

A special panel of judges assigned to the case by the state Office of Court Administration ordered the judges to produce the e-mail messages because they deal with a matter of legitimate public concern. The release of some e-mail messages uncovered a "fairly substantial problem in the Brazos County judiciary," said Joel White, an attorney representing The Eagle newspaper of Bryan-College Station . It originally requested the records under the Texas Public Information Act. "Some of the e-mails were frankly pretty shocking in terms of how lawyers could be treated in this particular judge's court." Judge Randy Michel, one of the five judges whose e-mail was requested, resigned in December after the District Attorney's Office learned about messages discussing a case in his courtroom with the attorney. The Eagle filed a Texas Public Information Act request in November 2005 for e-mail messages between Michel, Judges Rick Davis, J.D. Langley, Jim Locke and Steve Smith and attorney Patricia Bonilla Harrison. The judges comprise the Brazos County Juvenile Board, which sets guidelines for assessment of juvenile offenders and voted Harrison in as the county's juvenile referee, a judgeship dealing with juvenile cases. Harrison turned down the position later that month. The paper first filed its request under the Texas Public Information Act, then re-filed under Rule 12 of the Texas Rules of Judicial Administration.

Source: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press