A Sin City Murder, an Arrest, and Now a First Amendment Showdown
The fatal stabbing in September of longtime Las Vegas investigative reporter Jeff German has sparked a legal fight for control of his laptops and cellphone with what press advocates say threatens journalists’ ability, even in death, to protect confidential sources and unpublished work.
A Las Vegas judge on Tuesday sided with attorneys for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and granted a preliminary injunction blocking police, prosecutors, and public defenders from searching German’s devices.
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After calling a temporary restraining order granted last week “too broad,” District Judge Susan Johnson granted a preliminary injunction, adding, “I’m envisioning that we’re all going to be dealing with this quite a bit. We all want to get it right.”
With both sides yet to craft a compromise, the judge set a status check for later this month.
Ousted Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles is accused of killing the 69-year-old German on Sept. 2, police say, in retaliation for writing critical articles that cost him his re-election.
German’s body was discovered Sept. 3 in the side yard of his home. An autopsy revealed that he died after receiving at least seven stab wounds to the neck and torso. Metro Homicide detectives at the scene found six electronic devices, including a cellphone German had on him at the time of his death.
Police didn’t have to peek into German’s laptops to arrest Telles. After rapidly collecting residential security camera images that caught the murder suspect disguised in a floppy hat and garb commonly worn by local road workers, the investigation quickly led them to the 45-year-old probate lawyer’s home located a 10-minute drive from the murder scene. Inside, they found remnants of the hat and other evidence linking him to the crime. They also recovered Telles’ DNA from under German’s fingernails.
Telles, 45, made no secret on social media of his belief that German had smeared him with articles that accused him of creating a hostile workplace and carrying on an “inappropriate relationship” with a favored employee. One of his most vocal critics, veteran staffer Rita Reid, narrowly defeated him in the June Democratic primary and credited German’s articles for her victory. Telles was removed from office by court order earlier this month.
Telles was arrested Sept. 7 at his Peccole Ranch home following a brief standoff and an aborted attempt to harm himself. Five days later, citing probable cause that German’s devices might contain evidence linking Telles to the plot and commission of the reporter’s murder, Metro obtained a search warrant to access the devices.
Citing the Nevada Shield Law and federal Privacy Protection Act, and declaring police efforts an attack on journalism and a threat to press rights nationally, the newspaper demanded the immediate return of German’s devices. “It would be the climax of injustice if Jeff’s murder somehow compromised the identity of his confidential sources,” Review-Journal Editor Glenn Cook said.
As they have pressed to gain standing in an ongoing murder case, attorneys for the Las Vegas Review-Journal argue that state and federal reporters’ shield laws not only apply to the deceased reporter’s devices, but extend to members of its investigative team, Publisher and Editor Keith Moyer, “who are charged with carrying on the work of Jeff German in the wake of his death.”
First Amendment experts and advocates agree that German’s death doesn’t invalidate the state’s shield law, which is designed to protect journalists from revealing sources and work product.
“My sense is that the strong Nevada shield privilege cannot be destroyed simply by murdering its holder,” New York University civil liberties professor Burt Neuborne said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “It would be a mistake to hold that a defendant charged with murdering a reporter can gain access to a reporter’s sources when no such access would exist if the reporter were still alive. We usually don’t reward murderers for getting rid of the victim. At a minimum, a Special Master is necessary to identify and, if necessary, redact privileged information.”
At the nonprofit Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Jeff German Fund for Investigative Journalism has been created to honor the reporter’s life and commitment.
“Legislators [in Nevada] saw it important for whistleblowers to be protected, for sources to be protected,” IRE Executive Director Diana Fuentes says. “We talk about a shield law for reporters and journalists. It’s really a shield for sources.”
To honor the reporter’s life and commitment, IRE has set up the Jeff German Fund for Investigative Journalism.
“The attack on Jeff was an attack on all of us,” Fuentes says. “We will not be intimidated. We will continue to do what we’re supposed to do, which is hold the powerful to account and give voice to the voiceless.”
On Monday afternoon, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was joined by 54 media organizations in its amicus curaie friend-of-the-court brief in support of the newspaper’s position.
“Permitting government investigators to freely review privileged information from the Seized Devices threatens to chill vital newsgathering activity and could subject numerous sources, including sources inside the government agencies, to retaliation, harassment, and personal harm – precisely the outcomes the Shield Law was enacted to prevent,” attorneys for the Reporters Committee wrote. “Moreover, this case threatens to set a dangerous precedent that would stymie — and potentially stifle — news reporting on matters of vital public interest in Nevada.”
The newspaper has even found an ally in former Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who has spent most of his more than 36-year-career as a prosecutor and today is general counsel for the Police Protective Association, the union that represents the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. As a prosecutor, Roger often dealt with German’s dogged questioning.
“My perspective is that this is a major issue for journalists and the First Amendment,” Roger says. “If any sources are revealed in court documents, those people will be burned forever. More importantly, it will make it more difficult for journalists to cultivate sources in the future. With respect to the prosecution, I don’t know that these text messages and emails are of major interest to the defense at this point. This case does not appear to be a who-done-it.”
Not so fast, Metro assistant general counsel Matthew J. Christian says. Neither the federal protection nor Nevada’s Shield Law, considered one of the toughest in the nation, outweigh police and defense interests in a homicide case, he argues.
“Instead, this is a case where a reporter has been murdered, possibly because of the newsgathering, and law enforcement obtained a valid, court-approved search warrant based on probable cause to seize and search the victim’s property,” Christian wrote in a recent court filing. “Law enforcement is obligated to the public to ensure the investigation is complete, and to the accused … to ensure his constitutional rights are firmly protected.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Johnson raised the possibility of bringing in a Reno judge to supervise a group of Metro officials in the search of German’s devices to ensure the protection of the reporter’s sources and unpublished reporting. With both sides thus far unable to craft a compromise, the judge set a status check for Oct. 19, a week before Telles’ scheduled preliminary hearing on murder charges.
“We don’t know the information that is on the devices,” the judge said. “There may be nothing on there for all we know. If I were a betting person, I would say there probably is. More likely than not there is, but we don’t know.”
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