UPDATE: Daily Globe Tells Reporter O'Brien to 'Get Out of Dodge'

Image by Kevin H. via Flickr

Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe Reporter Claire O'Brien has been fired by the paper less than a month after the Kansas Supreme Court rejected her efforts not to turn over her notes and testify in a homicide case in which she conducted a jailhouse interview of the murder suspect.

O'Brien initially failed to respond to a subpoena obtained by the prosecutor, but subsequently testified at an inquisition after her anonymous source came forward and  freed her from her pledge of confidentiality. A contempt order issued against O'Brien was rescinded after she testified. (See "TUOL" posts 2/16/10, 2/5/10.) Kansas has no shield law.

O'Brien and the corporate ownership of the newspaper were embroiled in a public dispute concerning legal representation, but the newspaper, treating the termination as a "personnel" matter, has not commented on O'Brien's dismissal.