Legal News

Judge Delivers on Promise, Journo Must Pay Fines From Own Funds

By Dan Slater

Judge Reggie Walton wasn’t kidding.

Last month, Judge Walton, a D.C. district court judge, held Toni Locy, a former USA Today reporter, in contempt for refusing to name her sources for a story she wrote about Dr. Steven Hatfill’s possible role in the 2001 anthrax attacks. At the time, Judge Walton said he’d fine Locy (pictured) $500 a day for seven days, $1,000 a day for the following seven days, and $5,000 a day for the seven days after that if she continued to refuse to cooperate. He also said he would consider barring USA Today, or any other individual or news organization, from helping the 48 year-old Locy — now a West Virginia University journalism professor reportedly making $75,000 per-year — pay the fines. On Friday, Judge Walton delivered on both promises. Starting at midnight tomorrow, Locy is ordered to pay the fines — herself — until she appears before the judge on April 3.

Here’s Walton’s order, delivered Friday, that denies a stay of the monetary sanction pending Locy’s appeal, and requires Locy to personally pay the fines. Here’s the AP story that describes the order as well as a WSJ story, and here’s a February WSJ op-ed about Locy, written by Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to identify a confidential source

The backstory: In 2002, the FBI and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft described Hatfill, a former Army scientist, as a “person of interest” in the investigation into the attacks, which killed five people and to this day remain unresolved. Hatfill was not involved in the attacks and is now pursuing a civil action against the government for violating his privacy by leaking information to the press. On Tuesday, Judge Reggie Walton — the same judge who presided over the Scooter Libby trial — ruled that the testimony of Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, was crucial for Hatfill to pursue his case.

As for making Locy pay the money from her own funds, the judge cited arguments made by Dr. Hatfill’s lawyers, who said that, while Locy’s reporting was conducted “within the scope of her employment for USA Today, her contempt was not. It began long after she left the employment of USA Today.”

Law Blog readers, this seems a bit odd to us. Can a judge dictate where the payment of fines comes from? Must he enjoin everyone who, say, wants to reimburse Locy for her payment of the fines?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).