Smart Lawyer to Release More Investigation Results

[Moab]

Smart Lawyer to Release More Investigation Results
May. 1, 2003
Karen Scullin reporting

There are strong indications Thursday, that a scandal that has so far taken down two newspaper reporters, is about to grow larger.

The lawyer hired by the family of Elizabeth Smart to investigate leaks to the news media says he will release more results of his investigation tomorrow, and there are hints the news will be explosive.

In a separate, but possibly related development, Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson is reportedly pushing hard to to speed up his own investigation into how the police department handled the case.

The story into possible police leaks has been heating up for over a week now following the firing of two Salt Lake Tribune reporters.

Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh were the two lead reporters on the Elizabeth Smart case, but were fired after they sold information to the National Enquirer for ten thousand dollars each."

Yesterday the mayor reportedly sent a memo to Chief of police Rick Dinse asking for an immediate investigation into how police handled the Elizabeth Smart case, and for that investigation to be completed before the trial.

It's not known if that includes the police source who reportedly gave the information to Cantera and Vigh regarding the Smart family. He did indicate it would be a big story in tomorrow's newscasts.
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?sid=25514&nid=5

[Moab]

Lawyer Accuses Police of Leaking Smart Information to Reporters


A lawyer accused members of the Salt Lake City police and the FBI Friday of leaking information and rumors about the Elizabeth Smart investigation to two reporters who were fired for working with the National Enquirer.

Attorney Randy Dryer, who is representing the Smart family, said police, FBI agents and officials with the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Secret Service wrongly gave information about the case to two reporters for The Salt Lake Tribune.
{{{snip}}}

Dryer said Friday that Vigh and Cantera, to avoid litigation from the Smart family, identified the sources of their information that fed the National Enquirer and other stories about the case that were published in the Tribune.

Dryer refused to identify the names of those accused of leaking private information in the case, saying, ``Clearly this is explosive information that could have detrimental impacts on people's jobs and their careers.''

Dryer, hired by the Smarts to find the source of the leaks, sent his findings to state and federal prosecutors. He said the offenders may have broken state and federal statutes prohibiting unauthorized leaks by law enforcers.
{{snip}}

http://kutv.com/terror/local_story_122155641.html

[Tez]

Has anything else been released about this? I am betting some careers are going down the toilet as I type this!

[Moab]

District Attorney Clears Salt Lake Police in Smart Leak Probe
May 6, 2003 1:20 pm US/Mountain

Salt Lake County District Attorney Dave Yocom on Tuesday said none of the information sold to the National Enquirer for a story about Elizabeth Smart's family came from the city police department.

Yocom's announcement followed allegations by the Smart's attorney that the city police and other law enforcement agencies were the sources former Salt Lake Tribune reporters Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera said they used for the Enquirer story.

Attorney Randy Dryer said police and officials from the FBI, Utah Department of Public Safety, and U.S. Secret Service leaked information about the case.

Dryer provided Yocom with an audiotape of a 2-hour interview with the former reporters, who said nothing in the tabloid article about the Smart family came from the police department during off-the-record conversations.
{{{snip}}}
http://kutv.com/related/local_story_126152419.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AG: No Criminal Wrongdoing by DPS in Smart Leak Probe

May 7, 2003 6:46 pm US/Mountain


Utah's attorney general on Wednesday cleared the state Department of Public Safety of criminal wrongdoing in the probe over information leaks about the Elizabeth Smart case.

The announcement, made in a two-sentence news release, came one day after Salt Lake County District Attorney Dave Yocom said none of the information sold to the National Enquirer for a story about the Smart family came from the city police department.
{{{snip}}}
The attorney general's statement said the office had reviewed Dryer's evidence but concluded that ``there is no information that would warrant a criminal investigation'' at DPS. Material given by Dryer to the attorney general's office will be reviewed to consider whether internal policies were violated, the statement said.
http://kutv.com/related/local_story_127204743.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Judge Blocks Release of Smart Investigation Documents

May 10, 2003 6:03 pm US/Mountain

A judge has blocked the release of documents related to the investigation of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.

The order by 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton, said the risk of ``harassment, abuse and undue invasion of the witnesses and victims' privacy'' outweighs both the public and government rights to access documents in the case.

The judge cited concerns about Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, the couple charged in the abduction, getting a fair trial.

In light of the May 1 ruling, the city on Tuesday denied a Salt Lake Tribune request for police documents related to former top suspect Richard Ricci, who died while in custody. Ricci was cleared after Mitchell and Barzee were found with Smart on a Sandy sidewalk in March.

The judge issued the order at the request of prosecutors and defense attorneys. Police have objected to releasing any documents, and Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom said Thursday he felt a release of any documents could hamper the case.

http://kutv.com/related/local_story_130200647.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Tribune Publishes Enquirer Investigation Report
May 12, 2003 11:03 am US/Mountain


An independent investigation of a scandal involving two former reporters for The Salt Lake Tribune found that while the reporters violated some ethics rules, their stories about Elizabeth Smart and her family were accurate and based on legitimate sources at the time they appeared in the newspaper.

The report published in the Tribune's Sunday editions was the result of former editor James Shelledy's April 28 request for ``an independent investigation into Tribune reporters Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh contracting with a National Enquirer reporter in June 2002 on the Elizabeth Smart abduction.''

Shelledy wanted the report published in the paper without editorial oversight, the report states.

Joel Campbell, an assistant teaching professor of journalism at Brigham Young University and James Fisher, University of Utah assistant professor lecturer in journalism, wrote the report.

Both are former journalists and are active members of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Vigh and Cantera sold information about Elizabeth's family and abduction to the National Enquirer for a story that has since been retracted. They were paid $10,000 each for their collaboration. Shelledy fired the two for lying about the deal with the supermarket tabloid.
{{{snip}}}

Neither Vigh and Cantera nor their attorney would comment; neither did Enquirer reporter Alan Butterfield, the report said.

Some of the report's findings:

_Vigh and Cantera acted as sources for other news media, including national and local television, and lost some control over the information they offered.

_The Tribune did not publish the salacious and potentially libelous information that was printed in the July 2, 2002, edition of the Enquirer.

_Vigh and Cantera violated several portions of a written Tribune policy on outside employment, including the rule that all stories and notes written by reporters on duty are the sole property of The Tribune and can't be sold without management's approval.
{{{snip}}}
http://kutv.com/related/local_story_132130607.html

[FedoraX]

The Smarts wanted to ensure that no TV movie will have an unsavory speculative scene about a gay bro coven, and you can't blame them for that.

The Enquirer was misled by two eager-to-please, unprofessional doofuses who deserved to be fired. The editor appropriately resigned. The Enquirer got the public apology it sought.

Any other fall-out would surprise me. The media are too important to unsolved cases, and there is nothing wrong or unusual about credible leaks by law enforcement.

[Moab]

Originally posted by FedoraX
The Enquirer was misled by two eager-to-please, unprofessional doofuses who deserved to be fired. ..

Exactly FedX...talk about a career limiting move...too bad too because they did a pretty good job on other stuff.

[FedoraX]

They did some fine work for their paper.

Listen, this stuff happens. The GLOBE had an idiot on staff for a while who never understood how to report or write, and tried to cause problems when he was exposed as a jerk. He sure succeeded in taking down the tabs, didn't he?! LOL. If he is ever lucky enough to con someone to write his papers to get through law school and pass the state bar, you can bet someday he'll end up doing something improper and getting disbarred. In his case, clueless once, clueless forever.

Some people are just never able to rise to the job. Vigh and Cantera, instead of studying the work of the people whose money they were taking, made assumptions that the tabs would believe anything. Bad mistake. But let's not forget that they did something even more horrendous, which will certainly ensure they'll never be employed in that field again... they outed their sources. There is nothing lower than that. Even WJM's Mary Richards went to jail rather than to name a source!

The deal they signed with the Enquirer stated clearly that if they were misleading the tabloid, their names would be given up.

Whatever good work they may have done is superseded by their unethical behavior.