Congresswoman urges Ashcroft to free jailed writer

By The Associated Press

11.26.01

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HOUSTON — U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to free a Houston writer jailed for refusing to give a grand jury her research notes on a local society killing.

Vanessa Leggett, 33, has been jailed in a federal detention center since July 20, when a federal judge found her in contempt of court for refusing to turn over her notes related to the 1997 shooting death of Doris Angleton.

Vanessa Leggett

In her Nov. 21 letter to Ashcroft, Jackson Lee, a Democrat who represents Houston, said Leggett should be released on bail for humanitarian reasons.

"Ms. Leggett presents no risk of flight, nor does she pose any threat to society or herself. Her only 'crime' was to protect her confidential sources in keeping with the traditional constitutional notions of a free press," Jackson Lee wrote. "If ever there was a case in which the crime simply didn't fit the punishment, this most surely is the case."

Greg Serres, interim U.S. attorney for South Texas, said prosecutors would continue to oppose bail for Leggett.

"Our position remains unchanged on Ms. Leggett. We're going to oppose any release of her until she complies with the grand jury subpoena," Serres told the Houston Chronicle for the paper's Nov. 22 editions.

Doris Angleton's husband, Robert Angleton, was acquitted in 1998 of state charges of hiring his brother Roger Angleton to kill his wife.

Serres said that under Department of Justice policy, he could not confirm or nor deny whether a federal grand jury is now looking into the case.

But Leggett's attorney, Mike DeGeurin, has said a federal grand jury subpoenaed Leggett's notes and taped interviews for a book she planned to write about the killing.

Leggett spent her 129th day in detention yesterday, a period longer than any other journalist for refusing to comply with a subpoena.

DeGeurin said last week that Leggett's spirits remained high.

"Today is no different than yesterday or any other day she's been in custody. She's the property of the government," DeGeurin said on Nov. 21. "She's lonely. But her continued incarceration is not going to change her resolve to assert for all of us her First Amendment right to freedom of the press."

On April 16, 1997, Doris Angleton was shot a dozen times in the head and chest by an intruder in her River Oaks home. Her body was discovered by her husband, a former millionaire bookie to the city's monied class, when he came home from a daughter's softball game.

Roger Angleton committed suicide in February 1998 before being tried for capital murder. He left behind a suicide note denying that his brother had anything to do with the killing.

DeGeurin is appealing Leggett's detention to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Previous

Jailed writer's attorney to seek Supreme Court review of case
Full 5th Circuit has refused to re-examine three-judge panel's decision upholding contempt ruling against Vanessa Leggett.  11.16.01

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