Editor Loses Appeal of Jail Sentence
A federal appeals court refused Friday to halt the jailing of a California journalist charged with contempt for refusing to reveal sources.
Tim Crews, editor, publisher and lead reporter on the twice-weekly Valley Mirror in Glenn County, said he will report to the Tehama County Jail this morning as ordered by Superior Court Judge Noel Watkins.
Watkins ordered Crews to serve a five-day sentence for refusing to divulge his sources for a story about a former Highway Patrol officer accused of stealing a handgun.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Crews’ appeal without comment Friday. During the past week, a state appellate court, the state Supreme Court and a lower federal court refused to block the sentence.
In a telephone interview from his two-room newspaper office in Artois, a community of 260 about 100 miles north of Sacramento, Crews said that while he believes the contempt ruling is wrong, he won’t appeal it any further. And he said he will continue withholding his sources.
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