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Federal Judge Issues Sweeping
Decision in Newspaper Raid Case
In a 22-page ruling United States Federal District Court Judge
Nickerson granted almost the entirety of summary judgment motions on behalf of Kenneth
Rossignol and St. Mary’s Today by nationally recognized first amendment attorney's
Levine, Sullivan, Koch and Schulz, along with Washington, D.C. attorney Alice Neff Lucan.
And, with one exception, the Court denied the various defendants’
cross-motions for summary judgment.
Defendants in the action are St. Mary's States
Attorney Richard Fritz, former Sheriff Richard Voorhaar, and seven deputies, who raided
newsstands of all available copies of the newspaper on election eve in 1998, in order to
prevent voters from reading news stories before they voted in that day's election.
In evidence submitted to the court, a front page headline the day of the
general election stated "Fritz Guilty of Rape" and told the story of Fritz
having pleaded guilty, along with two other young men, in a plea agreement, of having sex
with a 15-year old girl. The victim later asked to be identified and said that she was
gang raped by the three. Despite Fritz's guilty plea, he later said the case was one of
consensual sex, telling ABC News Anchor Chris Wallace that three men having sex with
15-year-old girls "happens all the time" in St. Mary's County. Fritz ran for the
post of Circuit Court Judge in March, losing badly to St. Mary's Circuit Court Judge Karen
Abrams.
In today's ruling the Court (a) rejected the defendants’ arguments that they were
entitled to qualified immunity, (b) found that the Fourth Circuit’s ruling on First
Amendment grounds also applied in favor of ST. MARY'S TODAY publisher Kenneth Rossignol's
Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims, (c) granted summary judgment in the
newspaper's favor on claims that the defendants violated three analogous provisions of the
Maryland Constitution, and (d) granted summary judgment in Rossignol's favor common law
claims that the defendants tortiously interfered with Rossignol’s business relations
and engaged in a civil conspiracy.
On all of these claims, the only issue left to
decide is Rossignol's damages, which are to be assessed at a trial scheduled for
December. In its only ruling against the newspaper, the Court granted summary
judgment for the County, finding, in essence, that the Sheriff’s actions were not
imputed to the County because he is a state official rather than a County official, and
rejecting our other factual evidence establishing a practice and policy of First Amendment
violations by the County.
Although the district court dismissed the
newspaper's claims in its first ruling, today’s ruling expresses “its abhorrence
for Defendants’ actions.”
An appeal of the decision can be made to the Fourth Circuit.
See the related ruling of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued last year which has
been upheld all the way to the Supreme Court.
Three top ranking officials of the St.
Mary's Sheriff's Department are among the defendants: Lt. Steven Doolan, Lt. Lyle Long and
Lt. Michael Merican.
