Las Vegas newspaper asks judge to lift gag order in rape case
By The Associated Press
08.29.02
LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas newspaper is asking a Clark County District Court judge to lift another judge's gag order preventing the news media from identifying women who have accused a construction worker of kidnap and rape. The women also allege that the man videotaped the acts.
Steven Newberg, 37, was arrested in March after police reported finding videotapes in his Las Vegas home that they said showed women being raped. Newberg is charged with sexually assaulting two Las Vegas prostitutes and a teenager identified as a distant relative.
Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman said state law protects the privacy of sexual assault victims. She ordered the news media not to publish the names or photographs of the women who testified against Newberg.
In June, the Las Vegas Review-Journal challenged Zimmerman's order, citing the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.
Newberg is due for a pretrial hearing tomorrow before District Court Judge Michael Cherry.
The newspaper reported yesterday that Review-Journal attorney Steve Morris on Aug. 27 filed a motion to have Cherry lift Zimmerman's order. Morris told the newspaper that the gag order essentially serves as prior restraint and unfairly treats the press differently than the public.
"I think the community at large has a right to know who is involved in the criminal justice system whether they are perpetrators, victims or bystanders," Morris was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Editor Thomas Mitchell was quoted by the newspaper as saying: "We are challenging this gag order on a fundamental principle. If a judge can dictate what the press may publish about factual matters in open court, that is censorship, pure and simple."