Lake County News wins James Madison Award for First Amendment lawsuit against sheriff

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Lake County News has been named by the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California chapter as a winner of this year's James Madison Freedom of Information Awards for successfully suing for its right to basic law enforcement information after being blacklisted by the county's sheriff.

Lake County News co-founders Elizabeth Larson and John Jensen will receive the News Media Award for their successful legal fight to force Lake County Sheriff Frank Rivero to end his blacklisting of the publication after a series of hard-hitting, critical articles about his conduct in office.

Larson and Jensen are among honorees this year that include retired San Francisco Chronicle editor Peter Sussman, three high school journalists who honored confidential agreements with sources by beating back a subpoena for their notes, and an investigative journalist who used more than 100,000 pages of documents to report on potential structural problems on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

The 29th annual James Madison Awards will be presented to champions of the First Amendment and freedom of information on Thursday, March 20, at a banquet at the San Francisco City Club.

Jensen and Larson, the husband-and-wife team who founded Lake County News in December 2006, said they are extremely honored to have our efforts to fight for First Amendment rights and access recognized by a group as prestigious as the Society of Professional Journalists.

“Receiving this award means a great deal to us for a variety of reasons. It reinforces the idea that watchdog journalism is important to keeping public officials accountable and to revealing critical facts that the community has a right to know,” they said.

“Another reason we think it matters is that, while a lot of people are paying an inordinate amount of attention to the failure of corporate attempts at local online journalism, this is a key example of what local independent online publishers are doing, and doing well. We know our colleagues nationwide are doing this caliber of work everyday, and are the unsung heroes of modern day journalism,” they added.

Rivero on Thursday continued to deny that Lake County News won the lawsuit against him, attempted to justify his actions by calling the publication biased and alleged the investigation against him for credibility issues that Lake County News uncovered through public records law was “bogus.”

When asked for a comment on the award, Sheriff Rivero said “there was no real victory for Lake County News” and “[i]n my opinion, the judge erred in awarding attorney's fees.”

“I really have to disagree with the sheriff’s comments,” said Paul Nicholas Boylan, attorney for Lake County News. “The judgment and attorney fee award in favor of LCN was a huge victory. The judgment states that the sheriff won’t discriminate against LCN and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the judgment if the sheriff does it again.

“The judgment not only corrected a serious abuse of power, it also protects against and prevents future abuses. The attorney fee award is just icing on the cake, showing every government official – elected, appointed or hired – that there is a price to be paid if they violate a newspaper’s constitutional rights,” he said.

“That sounds like a fairly big win to me,” Boylan added.

Thomas Peele, investigative reporter and chair of the Nor Cal SPJ Freedom of Information Committee – which conducted an in-depth review of Lake County News' reporting on Rivero – also didn’t agree with Rivero’s assessment.

“The sheriff's actions in blacklisting a news organization were egregious,” Peele said. “The Lake County News didn't back down in the face of his blatant attempts at intimidation. Rather, the news organization held it itself to the highest journalistic standards of a free press, both in its reporting on the sheriff's Brady violations and by going to court and winning its lawsuit. The Freedom of Information committee members are quite proud to give a James Madison Award to the Lake County News.”

Larson first confronted Rivero while he was a candidate for sheriff in 2010 with evidence of his arrest record in Florida, which resulted in a story, which can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1cHvAst .

Not long after Rivero took office in 2011, Larson learned he was under investigation by the District Attorney's Office for changing a story about shooting at an unarmed man in 2008 while working as a deputy.
                   
Larson used the open-records law to expose Rivero’s status as a “Brady” violation risk in March 2012, resulting in an exclusive story: http://bit.ly/AD8RKd .

“Brady” comes from the 1963 US Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland which established that the government must disclose to criminal defendants any evidence that could potentially clear them, including credibility issues of officers involved in their cases.

The result of the “Brady” listing that the District Attorney’s Office eventually gave Rivero is that he cannot testify in court without defendants being informed of his history under that federal legal precedent.

Late in 2012, in retaliation for its coverage, Rivero blacklisted Lake County News from routine media information.

Larson and Jensen, took Rivero to court and in March 2013, with Boylan’s help, they won restoration of access to public media information and the county had to pay $110,000 to cover the pair’s legal fees.

Retired visiting Judge J. Michael Byrne, in making his ruling on the attorney’s fees motion, called Lake County News' suit “absolutely necessary” in order to resolve the First Amendment issues that Rivero’s blacklisting action had created. Byrne also found that the case's outcome was in the interest of open government and transparency.

Jensen's father is Dr. Carl Jensen, founder of Project Censored, professor emeritus of communication studies at Sonoma State University, author of several books on journalism, and a former reporter, editor and publisher. He also sits on the Lake County News Editorial Board.

“Over the years, as founder of Project Censored, I've had the pleasure of honoring investigative journalists. This year I'm especially pleased that the Lake County News is a recipient of the prestigious James Madison Award,” Dr. Jensen said.

Dr. Jensen himself received the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for Career Achievement from the SPJ 's Northern California Chapter in 1996.

Award organizers say they're unaware of any other father and son winners in the event's history.

The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is named for the creative force behind the First Amendment and honors local journalists, organizations, public officials, educators and private citizens who have fought for public access to government meetings and records and promoted the public’s right to know and freedom of expression.

The awards dinner is held annually during the week of Madison’s birthday, which was March 16, 1751.

James Madison, fourth president of the United States, is often called the ‘Father of the Bill of Rights” because he authored the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution as well as contributing to the authorship of the Constitution itself.

Award winners are selected by SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee.

The full list of this year's winners follows.

– Peter Sussman, retired editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, known for his tireless pursuit of an end to restrictions on media access to prisoners, his support of the inmate journalists’ rights and for his many other contributions to journalism, has been named winner of the Norwin S. Yoffie Award for Career Achievement Award. The Yoffie Award is named for the late editor of the San Rafael Independent Journal and co-founder of the SPJ NorCal’s Freedom of Information Committee who was a staunch advocate for transparency.

– Rob Gunnison, a former instructor and Director of School Affairs at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism will be honored with the Beverly Kees Educator Award for his years of mentoring aspiring journalists and for the re-establishment of required course work on access to public records. The award is named for a former SPJ NorCal president who was an educator and nationally recognized journalist.

– In a year when whistleblowers have been both applauded and excoriated, Peter Buxton will be honored with the FOI Whistleblower/Source Award for his historic 1972 role in exposing to a reporter the evils of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. From 1932 to 1972 African-American sharecroppers who thought they were getting medical care went untreated for syphilis so the government could study the disease’s progression.

– State Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco will receive the Public Official recognition award for his courage to oppose his own Democratic Party leaders and the governor in 2013 with public criticism of efforts to weaken the California Public Records Act by loosening disclosure requirements for local governments.

– Lake County News and its co-founders Elizabeth Larson and John Jensen will receive the News Media Award, for their successful legal fight to force the county sheriff to end a news blacklist of the paper after a series of hard-hitting, critical articles about his conduct in office.

– Attorney Terry Gross of Gross Belsky Alonso will receive the FOI Legal Counsel Award in recognition of his years of work to expand the rights of online journalists and to protect reporters who were victims of corporate email snooping and to redress the illegal police detention of reporters during protests in Oakland and Berkeley, among many causes.

– Freelance journalist Richard Knee will receive a Distinguished Service Award for 12 years of service on San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, an 11-member body that monitors City Hall’s compliance with open-government laws. He has served two decades on the SPJ NorCal FOI Committee and he helped in a successful ballot-measure campaign to strengthen the Sunshine law in 1998-99.

– Reporter Tom Vacar of KTVU Channel 2 will receive a Journalist Award for his story exposing false claims by BART and BART unions that the California Public Utilities Commission certifies BART train operators. Using the California Public Records Act, Vacar forced the CPUC to disclose it does not certify, review, test or train operators, but is no more than a rubber stamp for BART operator certification.

– The San Quentin News will be honored with a News Media Award for accomplishing extraordinary journalism under extraordinary circumstances. In the only inmate-produced paper in California, and under the scrutiny of prison authorities, the inmate journalists and volunteers covered a prison hunger strike, overcrowding and denial of compassionate release for a dying inmate.

– Samuel Liu, Sabrina Chen and Cristina Curcelli, reporters at The Saratoga Falcon, at Saratoga High School, will receive the Student Journalist-High School Award for their resistance to subpoenas for their notes and for protecting their sources by invoking California’s reporter shield law as they covered cyberbullying claims and the suicide of a classmate.

– Judith Liteky, a former nun, and Theresa Cameranesi, will receive the Citizen Award, for pressing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Defense to win a precedent-setting ruling that the government may not withhold on national security grounds the names and military unit information of graduates and instructors at the former School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

– News Editor Rebecca Bowe and staff writer Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez of the San Francisco Bay Guardian will receive Journalist Awards for extensive use of public records, independent research and interviews to produce a detailed account of financial “gifts” given to some city agencies that are used to curry favor out of the limelight.

– Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer who launched a method of secure communication between journalists and their sources, will be honored posthumously with the Public Service Award. Swartz died in January 2013 at the age of 26, but his work on the journalist-source software “Strongbox” has flourished.

– Senior investigative reporter Charles Piller of the Sacramento Bee will be honored with the Journalist Award for breaking the story that anchor bolts on the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were corroded and subject to potential failure in an earthquake. His digging led to the revelation that engineers had warned for two years of the danger.

– Columnist and editorial writer Daniel Borenstein of the Bay Area News Group will receive the Editorial & Commentary Award for his strong editorials that helped beat back a legislative attack on California’s Public Records Act. He also produced a string of columns critical of school districts that failed to report suspicious behavior and he challenged the lack of disclosure during BART labor negotiations.

Lakeport Police Department gets approval to purchase new crime-fighting tools

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday night, the Lakeport City Council's midyear budget review included consideration – and approval – of appropriations requests from the city’s police chief to purchase new equipment to keep his officers and the community safe.

The new tools will give the Lakeport Police Department increased crime mapping capability and video coverage of officers on the job.

The council approved Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen's request to contribute $15,000 to District Attorney Don Anderson's planned purchase of a three-dimensional crime mapping program.

Rasmussen told the council that the funds came from a Board of State and Community Corrections grant following the state's correctional realignment. “It's extra money that's designed to support us in increased felony operations,” he said.

Anderson also has asset forfeiture funds to put toward the purchase, according to Rasmussen.

In a followup interview with Lake County News, Rasmussen said Anderson approached the local law enforcement chiefs to ask them to contribute to the purchase.

Normally, the state grant funds are used for felony enforcements. In this case, Rasmussen and Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen – who receive the funding jointly – decided how best to spend the funds, and agreed to join Anderson's effort.

Rasmussen said two staff members from each agency will receive training on how to use the program.

“It will support prosecution of serious crimes,” said Rasmussen.

Anderson is set to make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on the program at an upcoming meeting, Rasmussen said.

The other appropriations request that got the green light from the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday was for $35,000 to purchase new mobile audio video units – or MAVs – for patrol vehicles and vest cams to be worn by Lakeport Police officers.

Rasmussen proposed to use $20,000 in asset forfeiture money, asking for an additional $15,000 from the city's general fund reserve.

“It's getting to the point where everything needs to be recorded,” in order to gather evidence, protect officers and guard the city against liability, said Rasmussen.

In the recent case in which a burglary suspect rammed a patrol car, the patrol vehicle’s MAV recorded that incident, Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen told Lake County News that a substantial portion of the $35,000 will be used for five new MAV units, three of which will replace nonfunctional units, with two patrol vehicles getting the units for the first time.

Rasmussen said the vest cameras for his officers are a brand new tool for his agency, and something he's been talking to City Manager Margaret Silveira about for several years.

The cameras, which are about the size of a pager and are turned off and on with a sliding switch, are less expensive than the MAVs, costing about $300 each, Rasmussen said.

He's planning to purchase Taser's Axon model vest camera, which has a 130-degree view and works well in low light conditions.

Rasmussen will order 13 of them to cover his sworn staff – from full-timers to part-time and volunteer officers.

The accompanying docking station is priced at $1,700. Rasmussen said the vest cams have enough battery life to cover a 12-hour shift. Afterward, officers will dock the cameras, with the docking station both charging them and downloading the video wirelessly.

Rasmussen said the cameras will “provide valuable evidence to support prosecution of crimes.”

While MAVs only pick up activities near patrol cars, the vest cams will record what is occurring in front of the officer, Rasmussen said.

The city of Lakeport belongs to the Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund, or REMIF. Rasmussen said the organization and its attorneys have been recommending that member agencies use tools like the vest cams to help reduce liability.

Rasmussen said the new MAVs were ordered on Wednesday, and he's in the process of ordering the Axon vest cams.

He doesn't believe any other local law enforcement agencies use the vest cams, adding, “It's definitely time that equipment be in place.”

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Governor's preliminary budget funds next stage of Lakeport Courthouse project

LAKEPORT, Calif. – After a stop-and-go process that has taken place over the last several years, it looks like the new Lakeport Courthouse project could move forward in the next fiscal year.

The $55.2 million project's working drawings phase is included in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed 2014-15 fiscal year budget, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The new 50,000-square-foot courthouse will be located at 675 Lakeport Blvd. The plans call for a two-story building, with four courtrooms on the main, top floor and clerical on the bottom floor, which will be built into the hillside.

It will more than triple the Lake County Superior Court's current footprint in Lakeport, where it occupies about 15,000 square feet on the fourth floor of the current courthouse, located on N. Forbes Street.

The court's current cramped quarters in the 1960s-era courthouse landed it on a list of eight priority projects in 2009, as Lake County News has reported.

“The current Lakeport courthouse has many inadequacies such as overcrowding, poor security and deficient courtrooms. Experts, who have carefully studied the facility, noted these inadequacies,” Lake County Superior Court Presiding Judge Stephen Hedstrom told Lake County News.

“The new courthouse will remedy those deficiencies and help provide access to justice to all Lake County citizens,” Hedstrom said. “It will be cost-effective, well-designed and long-lasting. Lake County will be proud of this new facility. We are very excited this project is moving forward.”

If everything goes smoothly and the governor's budget for the courthouse is approved, the new Lakeport Courthouse's groundbreaking could take place in the first quarter of 2016, with the dedication in the third quarter of 2017, according to Administrative Office of the Courts spokeswoman Keby Boyer.

The state funds its courthouse construction projects through SB 1407, legislation which was passed to collect as much as $5 billion in court user fees, penalties and assessments to build or renovate courthouses in 32 counties.

But as the state dealt with the fallout of the recession, the Legislature borrowed from the courts, with the Judicial Council reporting that $1.7 billion in SB 1407 funds have been redirected since 2009.

“The last five years we’ve taken a big hit to the judicial branch, and that includes construction,” Boyer said.

The State Public Works Board approved the new courthouse's preliminary plans in June 2012, said Boyer.

However, because of the state's financial challenges, after the State Public Works Board approval, the Lakeport Courthouse – along with 14 other courthouse projects across the state – was put on hold until fiscal year 2014-15, Boyer said.

In this latest preliminary budget proposal, Gov. Brown “has given us more money to work with,” said Boyer.

In another effort to save money, the courthouse projects have been put through a cost cutting committee, according to Mary Smith, the acting executive officer for the Lake County Superior Court.

Smith said the project has had an overall 23-percent cost reduction. Hedstrom and Judge Andrew Blum, accompanied by Smith, attended a Jan. 10 cost cutting committee meeting in San Francisco, during which the project was approved.

However, Smith cautioned, “We're so early in the budget right now, we don’t know where it’s going to end up.”

There are two parts to the Administrative Office of the Courts' architectural design process, said Boyer.

The first is the preliminary design, which is where Lakeport's courthouse project is now. Boyer said that step pulls together all of the details and considers how it will fit on the proposed site.

With Lakeport already having the State Public Works Board's approval, if the funding comes through for the 15 courthouse projects in the governor's budget, Lakeport's will move into the second phase, working drawings, which Boyer said takes the preliminary plans and prepares them for construction.

Boyer estimated working drawings would take about a year and a half to complete.

The process includes a lot of checks and balances, Boyer said. “We are spending the taxpayers' money and we are conscious of that.”

The new Lakeport Courthouse design calls for one of the stories below ground, Boyer said. The courts are very conscious of a height restriction, an issue that came up due to concerns that the Vista Point overlook at the Lake County Chamber offices, located just up the hill, would be blocked by the new building.

“It follows the natural curvature of the hillside,” and maximizes the property, said Smith. “The court's real happy with the design that was approved.”

She added, “I think it's going to be a beautiful project when it's done,” noting that the court is very happy with the architect, Mark Cavagnero Associates.

Smith said if everything goes “perfectly,” the bond sale for the project could take place in 2015.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.