Journalists and local newspapers can help serve justice or worsen injustice. Articles in Florida and Tennessee are cases in point. Last week, the Naples News noted that police were jailing innocent people because of identity theft and false identification, highlighting a growing problem the criminal justice system should address. In contrast, without obvious public benefit or interest, the Johnson City Press two years earlier parroted a sensational police press release leading to shame and suicide.
Johnny Smith, a 38 year old Naples Florida football coach, spent three days in jail because a battered woman he never met said the man who attacked her a year earlier was “Johnny Smith.” Aisling Smith of the Naples News reported that court records list 209 cases involving Johnny Smiths, and that the victim’s sister believes the woman gave a fake name and pointed to a random photo to protect the real attacker, her boyfriend.
In July, Anthony Falangas spent a day in jail after being arrested for felony fraud attempting to fill a prescription for opiate drugs. According to his attorney, Farangas was at work on June 26 when some one else used his stolen identification card at a pharmacy. The imposter fled the scene when the pharmacist phoned to verify the prescription. The store’s surveillance video was not working that day, and no physical evidence implicates Farangas, who now faces his fifth court appearance and up to five years in prison.
According to the Naples News police beat reporter Ryan Mills, the paper requests police reports every day -- including arrests and mugshots. The paper printed booking photos of Smith and Farangas. Although Mills faults the victim’s misstatements for Johnny Smith’s arrest, he told this reporter that something was “fishy or obviously false” in Smith’s case, and “it seems fair to ask why Jacksonville authorities didn’t connect the dots sooner.”
When asked about reporting on arrests based on no physical evidence where misidentification has not been ruled out, Mills said “Law enforcement should certainly be looking for physical evidence, but it would not be appropriate for them to withhold public records from us due to a lack of physical evidence.”….." I think as the local media, our job is to report the truth as best we know it.”
The Naples News served justice. It balanced public’s interest in knowing about arrests, problems with arrests and rights of those arrested. Naples highlighted the need for the justice system to grapple with the growing problem of identity theft and false identification putting innocent people in jail.
In 2007, the Police Department of Johnson City, Tennessee, released names, addresses and mugshots of 40 men arrested by undercover officers in a lewd conduct sting operation. Charges included disorderly conduct, indecent exposure and if a suspect touched an officer, sexual battery.
The Johnson City Press, a local paper, printed the names and photos the next day under the headline "Park sex sting nets 40 - Men targeted in investigations in two city parks." Of the 40 men arrested, several were prominent in the community. One soon shot himself to death.
Q-notes.com reporter Matt Comer criticized the Johnson City Press coverage:
"John Mosier, a local psychologist...says the community has not looked favorably on how the sting was reported. ‘People are in shock and disbelief, all across the political and philosophical spectrum,’ he stated. ‘Even fundamentalist Christians took issue with the way the event was reported.’ Calling the reporting of the sting ‘a widely perceived act of social injustice,’ Mosier says community response has ranged from calling the reporting ‘unconscionable’ to ‘sensationalistic.’”
In publicizing suspects' alleged sex crimes, Johnson City Police turned a park problem into injustice, costing lives and reputations. By covering the embarrassing details and printing names and photos, the Johnson City Press worsened that injustice for no compelling public interest.
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