Gee, maybe should start a site for Key West like http://www.oshkoshbygosh.org/ -- the Oshkosh Sux site. Might do their tourist industry a lot of good. 8-) Declan McCullagh wrote:

Police in Key West, Flordia have arrested a newspaper editor for printing an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors should be widely denounced.

As of this afternoon, the Key West newspaper's site at kwest.com was still up (I read what appears to be one of the articles in question at http://kwest.net/~kwtn/local_news/01-06-15-KWTN-FDLE_Investigating_Police_In...). But while the server is still alive -- it responds to ping requests -- connections to port 80 are now refused. Unfortunately, the article is no longer in my cache.

It looks like the editor, Dennis Cooper, is being prosecuted for allegedly violating a state law. Under Florida law, it's a crime to disclose information about a police investigation -- even if you're the person who had filed a complaint alleging police wrongdoing, as Cooper seems to have done.

You can find contact information for Key West officials here: http://www.keywestcity.com/directory.html http://www.keywestcity.com/depts/police/policetelephone.html

I've copied the mayor, the chief of police, and other officials. If they would care to reply, I would be happy to extend them the usual courtesy of distributing their response unedited.

If anyone puts up a mirror site with the article, please let me know. And I urge you to write to the city officials copied above. (BTW I have verified that the below article did run on the AP wire.)

-Declan

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From: Eric Cordian Subject: Journalist Arresting for Criticizing Cops To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:58:05 -0700 (PDT)

In today's news of the truly odd.

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KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- A newspaper editor and publisher was arrested for publishing an article alleging a cover-up in an internal police investigation he had filed an official complaint about, police records show.

Dennis Cooper, 66, editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, was arrested Friday and released two hours later on his own recognizance.

The affidavit for his arrest cites a Florida statute that makes it a misdemeanor for anyone involved in an internal police investigation to disclose information before it has been entered into public record.

Cooper has alleged a police lieutenant lied in court about a 1996 stop of a bicyclist, and that the Key West Police Department covered it up.

He filed a complaint last month with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement accusing an internal affairs investigator of falsifying information about his review of the incident.

[...]

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http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0112/SEC533.HTM&Title=->2000->Ch0112->Section%20533

...

(4) Any person who is a participant in an internal investigation, including the complainant, the subject of the investigation, the investigator conducting the investigation, and any witnesses in the investigation, who willfully discloses any information obtained pursuant to the agency's investigation, including, but not limited to, the identity of the officer under investigation, the nature of the questions asked, information revealed, or documents furnished in connection with a confidential internal investigation of an agency, before such complaint, document, action, or proceeding becomes a public record as provided in this section commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. However, this subsection does not limit a law enforcement or correctional officer's ability to gain access to information under paragraph (2)(a). Additionally, a sheriff, police chief, or other head of a law enforcement agency, or his or her designee, is not precluded by this section from acknowledging the existence of a complaint and the fact that an investigation is underway.

http://legal.firn.edu/justice/01law.PDF

...

Unauthorized disclosure penalties: Section 112.533(4), F.S., makes it a first degree misdemeanor for any person who is a participant in an internal investigation to willfully disclose any information obtained pursuant to the agency's investigation before such information becomes a public record. However, the subsection "does not limit a law enforcement or correctional officer's ability to gain access to information under paragraph (2)(a)."92

-- Harmon Seaver, MLIS CyberShamanix Work 920-203-9633 hseaver@cybershamanix.com Home 920-233-5820 hseaver@ameritech.net

Dear Mayor of Key West, and dear Chief of Police of Key West, I'm not a journalist, just an ordinary, run of the mill US Citizen, and I am wondering what the cowboys are doing in Florida! I am amazed, but ill impressed at the actions reported by on-line journalist Declan McCullagh . Your town lies 90 miles north of a Communist dictatorship, but it would seem to have been swept south by ill winds of fear and paranoia. If there is a RIGHT which Americans take seriously, hold near, and very dear, it is the First Amendment right of Freedom of the Press. For Shame, Key West, for actions as brutish as Tienaman Square! Your arrest of Dennis Cooper reflects either fear of exposure of worse wrongs than Cooper has reported, or a total lack of understanding or respect for the US Constitution. In light of the recent election results coming out of Florida, I suspect it is a combination of the two. Anthony Mournian San Diego, California "Police in Key West, Florida have arrested a newspaper editor for printing an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors should be widely denounced. As of this afternoon, the Key West newspaper's site at kwest.com was still up (I read what appears to be one of the articles in question at http://kwest.net/~kwtn/local_news/01-06-15-KWTN-FDLE_Investigating_Police_In...). But while the server is still alive -- it responds to ping requests -- connections to port 80 are now refused. Unfortunately, the article is no longer in my cache. It looks like the editor, Dennis Cooper, is being prosecuted for allegedly violating a state law. Under Florida law, it's a crime to disclose information about a police investigation -- even if you're the person who had filed a complaint alleging police wrongdoing, as Cooper seems to have done. You can find contact information for Key West officials here: http://www.keywestcity.com/directory.html http://www.keywestcity.com/depts/police/policetelephone.html I've copied the mayor, the chief of police, and other officials. If they would care to reply, I would be happy to extend them the usual courtesy of distributing their response unedited. If anyone puts up a mirror site with the article, please let me know. And I urge you to write to the city officials copied above. (BTW I have verified that the below article did run on the AP wire.) -Declan ---