Sheriff returns tapes seized in raids on media in sniper case

RENO -- Threatened with a First Amendment lawsuit, the district attorney returned videotape he seized from a television station but still plans to subpoena the interview with an interstate shooting suspect.

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick agreed to give back the unedited tape of KOLO's interview with Christopher Merritt after the Reno station's lawyer threatened a lawsuit for return of the materials and damages.

Gammick served a search warrant and seized the tape on Wednesday. He attempted to do the same at two other TV stations and the Reno Gazette-Journal.

In the tapes, and in subsequent interviews with media recorded by the sheriff's deputies, Merritt, 20, Mankato, Minn., said he opened fire on Interstate 80 near Reno this week as the first step in what he planned to be a cross-country killing spree.

Gammick did not return telephone messages left after the videotape was returned.

Kevin Doty, a Las Vegas attorney for KOLO, said Gammick said in a telephone conversation "he didn't want to get into the legal arguments of it.

"He asked us to keep the tape in a safe place so he can subpoena it. I said that was find with me because we would file a motion to quash," Doty told the Associated Press Thursday night.

"I just find this case to be unbelievable. You have material that is protected from disclosure before state law," he said.

"You have a search that is illegal pursuant to federal law. And this is all happening in a case where the accused has already confessed," he said.

Gammick said on Wednesday he considered the interview tapes to be central evidence in the case against Merritt. In past cases, he said tapes had been erased before he could subpoena them.

Merritt was scheduled to be arraigned in Washoe Justice Court today on eight counts of attempted murder.

Sheriff's deputies hit three other media outlets on Wednesday. The Gazette-Journal refused to turn over its notes, agreeing to lock them away until a subpoena could be served. KRNV-TV sent a copy of its interview to a justice of the peace and KTNV-TV gave a copy to its attorney.

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