Judge Orders Videotapes Returned to TV Station

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge Monday reversed himself and ordered the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to return videotapes it seized last week from a KCBS television news office.

The tapes of a raid by the Animal Liberation Front on a farm used by Loma Linda University Medical Center were seized from KCBS’s Riverside bureau after sheriff’s deputies obtained a search warrant from Judge Michael Smith. Lawyers for the television station subsequently argued in a hearing before Smith that he had erred in issuing the warrant, saying state law prohibits search warrants from being served on the news media to gather unpublished information.

Smith re-evaluated his order granting the search warrant and ordered it quashed Monday.

In response, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office served a subpoena on the television station to get the tapes back into the hands of authorities. A hearing has been set for Sept. 19.

KCBS spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said the station feels vindicated by Smith’s decision. She said his initial signing of the warrant “set a terrible precedent when it happened.”

“There are traditional legal steps to request material,” Sporkin said.

One of the seized videotapes was supplied by the Animal Liberation Front, which stole goats and dogs from the farm and released a tape to the media at a news conference. The other videotapes were shot by KCBS crews and showed the outside of the Loma Linda facility and contained an interview with Animal Liberation Front spokeswoman Margo Tannenbaum, a KCBS spokeswoman said.