The Dick Dasen Trial: The Romenesko Angle

Reporting on the Dick Dasen Trial was temporarily suspended here when I ran out of articles to cut and paste. Here's the reason why:

Chery Sabol, the reporter who has covered the Richard A. Dasen sex crimes case for Kalispell's Daily Inter Lake, has been subpoenaed by the defense as a witness in the case, and Judge Stewart E. Stadler has refused to throw out the subpoena. In what appears to be a highly unusual ruling, Stadler stated that because Sabol was named as an "informant" in the case by the Kalispell Police Department, the so-called "shield law" that normally protects reporters from having to testify about their information or sources does not apply.

However, Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner told New West on Monday that he did not consider Sabol to have been an informant and expressed surprise that she would be characterized that way in Stadler's order. Garner said that at one point during the Dasen investigation Sabol had forwarded him an email she had received relating to Dasen and asked Garner to comment on it, and that email had been provided to the defense as part of the discovery process.

...

Sabol, who has worked the Dasen story extensively for the paper since Dasen's arrest early last year, is not covering the dramatic trial that's now underway -- apparently as a result of being under subpoena. Sabol has not returned calls seeking comment.

The article appears to leave out some key information -- whether the e-mail anonymous and what it says. Does Sabol even know who the author is? The reporter's privilege issue is irrelevant unless Sabol has information that's not in the e-mail.

Unless and until the Daily Interlake assigns a new reporter or the some other news outlet steps up to the plate, coverage here may be sporadic. If the women weren't drug users and Dasen wasn't a Republican Christian, CNN and Faux would be all over this story.