BY JON HILLSON
MINNEAPOLIS - "On behalf of the staff of the Daily, we
respectively decline to comply with the order," a determined
Michele Ames, editor-in-chief of the University of Minnesota
student newspaper Minnesota Daily, told Hennepin County
district judge John Stanoch January 25. She refused to turn
over unpublished negatives sought by prosecutors to buttress
trumped-up felony charges against Kieran Knutson, a young
antiracist activist here.
Moments later, Ames was cited for contempt of court, and fined $250 a day for the remaining two days of Knutson's trial.
But in a stunning rebuke to prosecutors, and a victory for defenders of democratic rights, Knutson was found not guilty of both charges after an initially hung jury concluded its third day of deliberations January 28.
Stanoch's contempt citation and fine capped months of legal confrontations between attorneys for the Minnesota Daily, one of the country's largest student newspapers, and local government prosecutors. Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman pushed hard to force Ames to turn over the film. Stanoch originally ruled in favor of the Daily, but was ordered by an appeals court to enforce the original subpoena. The Minnesota Supreme Court then refused to hear the Daily's last appeal, setting the stage for Ames's defiance of the court order.
"This is a sad day for citizens of Minnesota," Ames said in an interview. "The First Amendment [protecting freedom of the press] is under assault. The contempt citation and fine sealed that assault." But, she added, "I wouldn't change anything. We can't back down on this important principle."
The Daily's lawyer, Marshall Tanick said he hoped that "other journalists will follow this principle," of refusing to turn their material into evidence.
Ames, a 26-year-old journalism graduate student, and a former teacher and athletic coach on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was the third editor-in-chief to refuse to fork over the negatives.
Antiracist mobilization
The film in question was taken by a Daily photographer
at an antiracist demonstration on the University of
Minnesota campus in October 1993. The action was called by
the Progressive Student Organization in response to a
leaflet promoting a "white power" demonstration called by
the "University Nazis."
Openly racist mobilizations, and antiracist counteractions, had occurred on the campus the previous two years.
When two young people garbed in Nazi-skinhead regalia approached the edge of the protest as it ended , Kieran Knutson, a member of the antiracist marshaling team, approached the duo.
Daniel Simmer then reached into his pocket, and pulled out what were later determined to be brass knuckles. Knutson swung a flashlight to protect himself from what he thought was a knife, he testified.
In the ensuing altercation, the ultrarightist was arrested for disorderly conduct and carrying the brass knuckles. But after Simmer met with the cops and told them his story, they dropped the charges.
Several weeks later, after a further police "investigation," Knutson was arrested on two felony assault charges, facing 10 years in jail and $20,000 in fines if convicted. For the following two years, county prosecutors sought the contested negatives to press their frame-up of the antiracist fighter. Simmer's claim of being assaulted was the core of their case.
As a condition of his release from custody prior to the trial, Knutson was barred from the University of Minnesota campus.
Knutson's day in court was postponed a dozen times as county attorney Freeman, a Democrat, sought to gain the negatives from the Daily, violating the activist's Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.
When the proceedings finally began in January, Knutson pleaded not guilty based on his right to self-defense.
Staunch resistance by Ames
Ames, backed by the 200-member Daily staff, remained
staunch in her resistance to Freeman's fishing expedition,
despite facing potential jail time and fines for affirming
the newspaper's rights.
"I am willing to go to the wall," Ames explained, before the contempt citation, "to stand up and say `no,' because this is a question of principle, a question of the First Amendment."
Surrendering unpublished material, she said, makes newsgathering organizations "an arm of law enforcement. Who would trust us? Who would believe us?"
In fact, it's common practice, Ames said, "that you publish the most illustrative photos," indicating there could be no trial-worthy information in the negatives, since the Daily had already printed "the best picture."
Thus, Freeman's attack on the Daily could be viewed as "a good place to start a test [of press freedom] because it's only a `student paper,' up against the government and the courts," she said.
At the same time, Hennepin County's top prosecutor was determined to make a chilling example of Knutson, sending a message to antiracist fighters and foes of ultrarightist and fascist outfits.
In her stand, Ames indicated that the "ideologies" of those involved in the Knutson trial were "unimportant. If the roles were reversed, if Simmer were on trial, we would have exactly the same position: they will never, ever get the negatives." This firmness won widespread support among many journalists and media organizations here. Over 500 reporters across the state signed a petition initiated by the Newspaper Guild, the media workers labor union, supporting the Daily. The Guild is also raising money to offset court penalties and legal fees.
A "friend of the court" brief filed along with the Daily's appeal was backed by a dozen outlets, including local television stations, newspapers, the local chapter of the Newspaper Guild and its parent organization, the Association of American Publishers, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Michele Ames believes that despite the pressures " it has been worth the cost, for the Daily, and the citizens of this state, who I am trying to protect and serve by what I've done."
Local reporters saluted the young journalist for her uncompromising stand. Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow noted, "To her everlasting credit, Ames carried out her pledge." But the contempt citation, he stated, "should cause every Minnesotan who values independent newsgathering to shudder."
"They tried to put us on trial for being active, aggressive antiracists," Kieran Knutson said after his verdict was announced to courtroom cheers. But "the jury wasn't convinced that was a crime."