Court lifts order blocking news reports on allegation against cop

By The Associated Press

09.23.02

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A Montgomery police officer has been fired after allegations of inappropriate conduct, which the mayor said involved transmitting explicit photographs on the Internet. A judge late last week lifted an order he had issued to keep the news media from informing the public about the allegation.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright identified the officer as Karl Petkovich, whose attorney initially won a temporary restraining order signed Sept. 19 by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Charles Price.

Price ordered three Montgomery television stations and other news media not to report on specifics of a police department internal affairs investigation of Petkovich. But Price lifted the order during a hearing Sept. 20.

Bright said he made the decision to fire the officer on a recommendation from the Police Administrative Review Board. The officer went before the board on charges of conduct unbecoming a police officer.

"He transmitted some photos across Internet lines, and we felt it was inappropriate," the mayor said. He said the transmissions were from the officer's home.

A Montgomery Police Department spokesman, Lt. Huey Thornton, declined to comment.

Price said he signed the restraining order because Tracy Birdsong, an attorney representing Petkovich, claimed that a Montgomery television station was about to report the wrong reason for the internal affairs investigation.

Price said his order was intended only to prevent that specific allegation from being reported and lifted the order after learning that the television report in question was not wrong.

But Dennis Bailey, an attorney for the Montgomery Advertiser, said it is unusual for a court to suppress news media coverage in such a manner. He said it would require a showing of "a clear and present danger to an important government interest."

"I don't think this qualifies," Bailey said.