Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999 | 9:17 a.m.
RENO, Nev. - Citing the First Amendment and Nevada's media shield law, a judge ruled a news reporter does not have to comply with a subpoena for raw videotape from her interview with a suspected killer.
KRNV-TV of Reno does not have to turn over the unedited tape partly because prosecutors already have ample evidence and don't need it, Washoe District Judge Peter Breen said in the ruling last week.
Victoria Campbell, the reporter for the NBC affiliate in Reno, agreed to verify the information she broadcast in the interview with stabbing suspect John Andre Bazile on Dec. 31, 1997, Breen said.
Sheriff's deputies already have obtained a confession from Bazile as well as an eyewitness account of the stabbing, the judge said.
"The State's interest in prosecuting criminal conduct and the interests of justice are compelling," Breen wrote.
"However, it appears that the facts of this case weigh in favor of the First Amendment."
In addition, Breen said Nevada's media shield laws is clear in the protection it provides news reporters against divulging information.
"The state contends that news reporters enjoy no qualified privilege not to disclose non-confidential information in criminal cases," Breen said.
"This court disagrees," he wrote. "A balancing test is in order here."
Campbell and Sunbelt Communications, owner of KRNV-TV, filed the motion to quash the district attorney's subpoena for the raw videotape last year.
Judge Breen said there have been conflicting rulings in similar cases throughout the country over the years. But he said Nevada's shield law "appears to be straight forward in that it provides protection for Campbell."
He cited a 1987 ruling in a Nevada case that found "of the states that have enacted such reporter's privilege, Nevada's appears to be the strongest."
The state law says:
"No employee of any ... television station may be required to disclose any published or unpublished information obtained or prepared by such person in such person's professional capacity in gathering, receiving or processing such information for communication to the public .. in any ... trial ... before any court."
Breen said a Washoe County sheriff's deputy already testified that Bazile told him he killed Judith Laine, 33, Sparks, on Nov. 13, 1997.
A woman witnessed the murder and described it in detail at the preliminary hearing. A jail guard was present throughout Campbell's interview at the county jail and also could be available to testify, Breen said.
"Campbell provided a copy of the aired portions of her interview with Bazile and is prepared to authenticate the tape. There appears to be ample evidence available to the state in this case."
Laine's body was found in late December 1997 buried under 3 feet of snow near Boca Reservoir west of Reno.
The witness to the stabbing, Kimberly Jean Fondy, 33, testified in initial hearings of the case.
But she was killed at her Sparks home last April. Three men have been charged with murder in that case and police do not believe it is related to the killing of Laine. Breen said prosecutors still have copies of her earlier testimony for use in Bazile's case.
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