Journalist Arresting for Criticizing Cops

[Eric Cordian]

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