That hoax on the Odessa Police generated by Barry Cooper and his Kopbusters with the fake grow house in Odessa has certainly been an interesting story. And now there may even be a First Amendment issue.
To recap, a local preacher took a letter to the OPD. The letter provided an address of a house and said the resident of the house was growing marijuana plants and was planning on harvesting them soon. So the OPD obtained a search warrant and entered that house. That's when discovered that it was all a hoax and that they were being videotaped.
There was some controversy about the affidavit for the search warrant as the affiant identified the preacher as Terry Pierce. It turns out that the name of the preacher was Terry Pugh, according to an Odessa American article by Doug Carman. And the OPD maintains that it was a simple mistake by the officer who signed the affidavit. (Link to a reproduction of the affidavit can be found below.)
The OPD, understandably, wants to try to identify the person who delivered the letter to the preacher. And according to this unsigned OA article, the police have asked for information about "everyone that is responding" in the form of comments at oaoa.com about the news articles. The Odessa American declined to provide that information. Here's this from that article:
Odessa American Editor Laura Dennis said the OA will not release confidential records that indicate e-mail addresses or other information from posters who have registered on the paper's website to the OPD or anyone else.
"We tell website users that their information is confidential and that it will not be sold or given out. We will stand by that," Dennis said.
Attorney John Bussian is a First Amendment specialist and is a Freedom Communications attorney. Freedom is the parent company of the Odessa American. Bussian said Tuesday that Freedom recently successfully resisted a subpoena in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., by law enforcement asking the paper to reveal confidential data given to the paper by users who had registered on the paper's website.
"We have just resisted efforts by law enforcement officers to make the press reveal confidential data provided to us by those posting comments on our websites," Bussian said. "This is not obstructing justice it is simply asking law enforcement to make the press witnesses of last resort and to demonstrate the things required by the First Amendment before forcing us to reveal these posters," Bussian said.
Bussian said information given to the OA on the website is confidential.
Press shield laws were proposed in 2005 and 2007 in the Texas legislature, but neither bill passed into law. Media folks are saying maybe this year.
[Previously at this website: see Odessa Cops Stung and USA vs. Yolanda Jean Madden. And for a reproduction of the affidavit for the search warrant and the letter see A 2nd look at that fake "grow house" sting on Odessa cops.]
[Updated 12/24/09 -- see Yolanda Madden Awarded a New Trial.]
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