Times denied access to news conference; dispute over unrelated story prompts District Attorney to shut out newspaper

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:31 AM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO -- The North County Times was denied access to a news conference Monday where county District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis issued a public health warning about illegal prescription drug sales.

Dumanis' spokesman, Paul Levikow, said the denial was based on a dispute over the newspaper's publication of an unrelated story in May involving the theft of palm trees at MiraCosta College.

Efforts to reach Dumanis were unsuccessful: Levikow said a request to speak with her for this story would not be granted.

During her news conference, the district attorney announced that a 21-year-old woman died after suffering an allergic reaction to penicillin that had been sold to her illegally at a San Diego produce market that caters to Latinos.

North County Times acting Editor Dan McSwain said refusing access to Monday's news conference amounted to limiting access to important health information for a wide swath of the North County public.

The reporter who was turned away, Teri Figueroa, was instead given a news release and told she could get details of the news conference from The Associated Press or City News Service, two news services.

The office's dissatisfaction with the newspaper stems from a story published May 10 that reported charges had been filed against a former MiraCosta College professor. In a deal with prosecutors, the professor was arraigned and pleaded guilty to grand theft the same day the story was published.

Dumanis and Levikow had urged the newspaper not to publish the story, saying it violated an agreement her office had reached with David Garrick, the Times reporter covering the case.

The newspaper went ahead with the story after McSwain decided that the agreement covered only information regarding the plea bargain, which had been disclosed by Levikow to Garrick under an embargo agreement. Thus, the May 10 story was limited to the charges contained in public court documents.

McSwain said publication of the MiraCosta story was proper.

"The decision was not even close," he said. "Our duty is not to allow any public official to exercise prior restraint, which is a fancy way of saying 'We are not going to permit anyone to tell us what and when we can publish.' "

Levikow said it has not been decided if the newspaper will continued to be barred from news conferences or information from the district attorney's office.

McSwain, who is scheduled to meet with Dumanis today, said he believes the matter will be resolved.

"I am confident that District Attorney Dumanis, who I believe is fair and reasonable, will put an end to it," he said.

Banning reporters from a news conference generally is not allowed by law, according to Terry Francke, chief attorney for Californians Aware, a Sacramento-based public information watchdog group.

"There are federal court cases concluding that a news organization or a particular journalist cannot be blackballed or punished for publishing things that a public official or a public agency did not like," he said.

Instead, Francke said Levikow or Dumanis could adopt a posture that the newspaper would be "crossed off the insiders list" and no longer be given advance tips.

"This goes well beyond that," he said. "Denying access to things available to all other news media on a nonconfidential basis is something that I don't believe is constitutionally sound."

-- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

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