The State - News from Nov. 18, 1987

San Jose Mercury News reporter Kathy Holub will not be required to surrender her notes and tape recordings of interviews with a key prosecution witness in a murder trial, a Santa Cruz judge ruled. The dispute involved Holub’s story about the murder of Corine Christensen of Santa Cruz. Defendant Richard Bandler sought notes from Holub’s interview with admitted drug dealer James Marino, the only eyewitness. Holub refused, citing California’s shield law, protecting a journalist from being held in contempt of court for refusing to disclose unpublished information. “The people of California have decided that this is a privilege that has the highest priority,” Superior Court Judge Chris Cottle ruled. He said the information was not essential to the defendant’s case, was available from other sources, and there was little possibility that it would make the difference between acquittal and conviction.