Police chief has regrets in seizure of reporter's phone records

Though stopping short of an apology, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said Thursday he regrets having caused "concern or worry" among journalists about his department's seizure of a TV reporter's cell-phone records.

If such a step were to be taken again, he said, the reporter and his or her news organization would be notified first, provided the reporter was not being investigated for a major crime.

Police seized the phone records of reporter Tom Lyden, of KMSP-TV, as part of an investigation into whether a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy violated the state's data practices law by allegedly giving Lyden a police report that police had said was private.

Until last week, neither Lyden nor KMSP knew police had requested and secured his phone records, because they had been obtained from his telephone company through a sealed search warrant.

The seizure has been viewed by journalism advocates as an attack on the First Amendment and an end run around a state law protecting reporters from divulging sources. Had the newsroom been subpoenaed, as can occur at the hands of prosecutors, KMSP would have had an opportunity to fight the search in court.

Speaking publicly about the case for the first time Thursday, Harrington said he believed in an open government and that the pursuit of Lyden's records "was not about stopping the press." Police spokesman Tom Walsh said the search warrant, when unsealed, is likely to reveal a request for phone calls within a short period of time: "Certainly fewer than six hours," he said.

Police wanted to know, he said, "if X called Y, and Y called Z," but he acknowledged that that alone would not make a case.

On Thursday, Harrington also announced that his department's investigation of the sheriff's deputy is now closed -- with no charges filed.

The wrong call

The controversy began June 11 when Lyden was told by police that a record he was seeking about a woman involved in a St. Paul traffic stop seven years ago wasn't public.

Later that afternoon, Harrington said, a deputy allegedly retrieved the report, and then gave it to Lyden, who broadcast a story about the 2000 incident that night.

Initially, the chief said, police deemed the report to be private because it was unclear whether the earlier case had been closed and because the woman -- a domestic violence victim -- asked that her name be withheld for safety reasons.

Fletcher, who earlier this week described the seizure -- also targeting his deputy's telephone records -- as an "abuse of authority," said Thursday that he now is satisfied with the chief's response.

He is confident, he said, that public reports no longer will be misinterpreted as private.

Harrington, when asked if he planned to apologize to Lyden, as KMSP has requested, said, "It was never our intention to damage Mr. Lyden" and that he hoped to meet with him in an effort to "clear the air."

Lyden said he is open to such a meeting.

He said he has been hearing from police employees who were outraged by the department's actions: "They don't call my cell phone," he said. "But they're calling."