They shoot sources, don't they?

A small-town newspaper publisher in northern California is facing
jail time for refusing to reveal his sources after running a series of
investigative articles describing alleged theft of unregistered guns,
including one by an ex-official with the local sheriff's department.

Tim Crews, editor and publisher of the twice-weekly Sacramento Valley
Mirror, told WorldNetDaily that barring a legal reprieve from the
state's Supreme Court next week, he could face up to five days in jail
for failing to provide the names of two sources who told him a former
county undersheriff allegedly had stolen a gun while he worked for the
California Highway Patrol in 1994.

Crews, who said he "didn't have enough to go on" to publish the story
when Undersheriff Dwey Anderson took office in Tehama County six years
ago, said that after he published a "rather laudatory" article about
Anderson, who left a California Highway Patrol narcotics division job to
take the undersheriff appointment, "a couple of cops familiar with
Anderson" called within a day of each other to inform him of the alleged
gun theft.

The Valley Mirror publisher said the officers related to him over the
phone the alleged contents of a police report acknowledging the theft,
but refused to provide a copy of it to Crews when he asked.

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"They thought if they faxed it to me everybody would know who did it
and they'd lose their jobs," he said. "But if I'd had that report, I
probably would've gone with the story back then."

Three years later, Anderson left his undersheriff position and again
went back to work for the California Highway Patrol. But in May of last
year, shortly after the Columbine High School shootings, the same weapon
described to Crews in 1994 turned up in the trunk of a car belonging to
the son of Anderson's daughter's fiancée while she was attending school,
a felony in California.

Crews said the young man told authorities she had gotten the weapon
-- a .380 automatic with a large ammunition magazine -- from Anderson.
Ironically, the publisher said, the weapon had its serial number filed
away, also a felony in the state.

The Valley Mirror, which Crews describes as a harbinger of
"aggressive investigative pieces as well as pieces about the local 4-H
club," began printing articles about the incident.

"His (Anderson's) defense attorney subpoenaed me," Crews said, "with
the theory that since there was a report made 1994, early 1995, to a
superior, and I knew who knew about that, I can establish when the
statute of limitations would have started. But amazingly, they're not
even denying that Anderson stole the gun.

"They believe that would be an affirmative defense," he said.
Anderson's attorney, William Malloy of Redding, Calif., could not be
reached for comment.

"However, we're forgetting (that Anderson is) possessing a weapon
that has no serial number -- a federal and state offense -- and we're
forgetting that he's possessing government stolen property, which was
taken from his narcotics unit," Crews said. "They have it in their heads
that, despite limited testimony, that I am somehow going to give them
the way out of this so they can get rid of the felony grand larceny
charge, but I'm not going to give up my sources."

Crews said he is being represented by a team of attorneys affiliated
with the California First Amendment Coalition, of which he is a board member.

"They want my head," he said, "but at the last minute we have two
Supreme Court petitions in. Next Wednesday, though, I'll be appearing
(in court) with my toothbrush in my pocket and no wallet" unless the
state Supreme Court remands it back to the lower courts for a hearing,
Crews said.

The journalist noted that "there are some tests" such cases must pass
before rulings can be issued on whether or not a journalist must reveal
his or her sources.

"Years ago an initiative was passed in the state, which is part of
the state constitution, that has to determine whether or not revealing
sources would hamper your news-gathering ability."

Crews said a Superior Court judge in Tehama County has already ruled
that he didn't think the paper would be harmed if those sources were
given.

"I just feel -- and I tell everybody -- that we have to do the right
thing here," he said, adding that in recent years all journalists "seem
to have taken it on the chin" in the courts.

In a Nov. 1, 1999 ruling, the California Supreme Court said that
state prosecutors have no authority to demand from reporters unpublished
notes or broadcast out-takes in order to bolster their evidence in
criminal cases -- even if the information sought would not reveal the
identity of confidential sources.