Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: WED 12/20/95
Section: a
Page: 1
Edition: 3 STAR

Journalist refuses to identify sources/Chronicle staffer freedpending appeal

By JENNIFER LIEBRUM
Staff

A Houston Chronicle reporter narrowly escaped spending Tuesday night in jail for refusing to identify grand jurors who spoke to her about the panel's consideration of a controversial police shooting .

A judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late Tuesday authorized reporter Jennifer Lenhart's release from custody on $1,000 bond, and gave state District Judge Mike McSpadden 30 days to respond to the appeal. She will remain free until a decision by the appeals court on the merits of the case.

Earlier Tuesday, McSpadden had held Lenhart in contempt of court and ordered her jailed until she revealed the names of grand jurors who disclosed information about the panel's deliberations, despite the jurors having taken an oath of secrecy.

On Sept. 26, the grand jury declined to indict Bellaire Officer Michael Leal in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old burglary suspect Travis Allen. A subsequent news article written by Lenhart quoted two members of the grand jury who criticized the decision and discussed the panel's deliberations.

Chronicle Managing Editor Tony Pederson said he was elated at Lenhart's release. Reporters and editors applauded when Lenhart and two of her attorneys, William Ogden and Ronald G. Woods, walked into the newsroom Tuesday evening.

District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said he wants Lenhart to tell a separate grand jury the names of the grand jurors who spoke to her so that they can be prosecuted for violating laws requiring grand jury secrecy.

Pederson, however, said principles other than grand jury secrecy are at stake.

The case, he said, is "about the right of a newspaper to look at events of widespread public interest. I think the events in this case (the shooting of Travis Allen) are of compelling public interest."

Ogden agreed with Pederson's assessment, calling Holmes' effort to compel Lenhart to reveal her sources a "witch hunt."

"This is not about grand jury secrecy," Ogden said. "This is about the district attorney reading a story in the newspaper that he didn't like and deciding that the price of that is that a reporter has to go to jail."

Holmes said he was offended at the assertion that his actions constituted a personal vendetta. He said he was faced with an obvious violation of grand jury secrecy and that, rather than seeking to punish Lenhart, he was trying to identify someone who intentionally violated the law.

"I am very comfortable with what I did," Holmes said. "It is my job to uphold the law."

Allen was shot to death on the night of July 15 after breaking into a home in the 4400 block of Acacia.

Police went into the house to arrest Allen, who refused to come out. An autopsy subsequently found LSD, marijuana and caffeine in his body.

Leal fired two shots into Allen's back as the youth lay on the living room floor with another officer's foot on his back.

After reading Lenhart's article, which appeared two days after the grand jury's decision, Holmes began trying to identify the sources of the story.

Of the 11 jurors present that day, 10 signed affidavits saying they were not the source. One refused to sign the document.

On Tuesday, Lenhart appeared before a separate grand jury in response to a subpoena issued by Holmes' office, but she refused to identify the grand jurors who spoke to her.

When she again refused after McSpadden ordered her to answer the question, the judge ordered her jailed until she changed her mind.

In a hearing before McSpadden Tuesday, Holmes testified that it is the secrecy of grand jury proceedings that ensures their integrity.

"If the institution is not functioning, there are remedies to that other than violating the secrecy of the grand jury," he said.

Pederson said newspaper articles examining the role of the grand jury are part of the remedy.

"There were clearly members of that grand jury who were concerned about the procedure. There was clearly some degree of discussion as to the proper procedure that the grand jury went through, and there clearly were a number of people who thought there should have been an indictment returned.

"Those issues, as we did point out, in court, were of compelling news interest. And all of the reasons for grand jury secrecy - and there are compelling and valid reasons for grand jury secrecy - no longer applied in this case."

Ogden argued that laws requiring grand jury secrecy must be balanced against a reporter's "qualified privilege" to protect confidential sources.

He acknowledged that state courts in Texas have never explicitly recognized such a privilege. But Ogden said he is confident that appeals courts will find that "under these unique circumstances," Lenhart was legally justified in protecting her source.

Lenhart, 34, has worked for the Chronicle for more than two years. She previously worked for the Chicago Tribune and the Naples (Fla.) Daily News.

Lenhart, a native of Defiance, Ohio, received an undergraduate degree from Vassar College and a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.