Blog Journo Appealing Ill. Judge Order to Reveal Confidential Sources

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AOL Patch reporter Joe Hosey has been ordered to appear at an Oct. 3 status conference by Illinois 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kinney regarding the judge's ruling that Hosey reveal confidential sources who provided him gory details about a double murder in Joliet, according to articles by the Chicago Tribune and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Web site (www.rcfp.org).

Hosey is appealing Judge Kinney's ruling based on a motion for a gag order brought by attorneys for the four defendants in the gruesome killings covered by Hosey in the Joliet Patch beginning last January. Hosey's articles included grisly details attributed to police reports, including that two of the defendants allegedly had carnal relations on top of the victims' corpses and that one of the defendants purportedly wanted to keep the victims' teeth as a trophy.

More than 500 individuals involved in the case, including police officers and attorneys, were compelled to sign affidavits stating they had not provided Hosey with the confidential information. The court wants Hosey to testify to determine whether Grand Jury rules were violated by the leaking of the information. Attorneys for the veteran journalist argue Hosey should be protected from disclosing the confidential information by Illinois' shield law [75 Ill. Comp. Stat. secs. 5/8-901 to 8-909].