Home »
News &
Events » News Archive » 2001 Press Releases
ACLU Agrees to Represent Local Newspaper Journalist Arrested for
Making Critical Statements
October 12, 2001
KEY WEST ? The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today announced that it will represent a Key West newspaper editor who was arrested by Key West Police for allegedly violating a "gag law" that makes it a crime to publish facts relating to active police investigations.
Dennis Cooper, the outspoken editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, criticized the Key West Police Department in published remarks and was later arrested on June 22nd.
"This is a clear case in which the police violated both the freedom of speech and freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment," said ACLU cooperating attorney Michael Barnes of Key West. "The Courts are particularly sensitive to governmental actions which stifle critics who comment on matters of public concern."
Key West Police Chief Gordon Dillon cited Florida statute 112.533 to arrest Cooper. The statute was declared unconstitutional more than a decade ago.
In the 1990 case of Hickox v. Tyer, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Zloch found that the statute "chills free speech and chills the expression of truthful information." James Green, an ACLU cooperating attorney in West Palm Beach who will join in representing Mr. Cooper, brought the lawsuit that resulted in the statute being declared unconstitutional.
Although the criminal charges against Cooper have since been dropped, the ACLU of Florida plans to file a civil lawsuit, seeking compensation for Cooper's illegal arrest and to prevent the use of the unconstitutional statute in the future.
"Nowhere in America should a newspaper editor be arrested for printing the news," said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida.
As editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, Cooper wrote numerous investigative stories that suggested that the police department was covering up corruption among its officers. He gathered much of the information by filing a public records request and reviewing documents in a closed police file.
When the police department failed to adequately investigate the allegations of misconduct, Cooper filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). FDLE then asked the police chief for a response to the complaint and notified Cooper of its request to the chief.
"I couldn't get any answers from the police department so I went to the FDLE," said Cooper, who founded the independent newspaper in 1994. "Some say that's breaking the rules for journalists, but my attitude is, why bother to publish a newspaper if you're not going to report the facts, uncover the truth, and really make a difference?"
Shortly after the FDLE requested that Chief Dillon provide additional information about the alleged police misconduct, the Police Chief personally signed an arrest warrant that claimed Cooper's statements in the press could "substantially jeopardize the success and completion of the active investigation." The arrest came on June 22 ? the same day Cooper published yet another article about the on-going investigation brought about by his complaint to the FDLE.
"The numerous unacceptable actions of this particular police chief made this lawsuit inevitable," added ACLU Cooperating attorney Barnes. "This is particularly true since the elected City officials failed to curb his abuses. The United States Constitution protects people in this country from being retaliated against for speaking their minds."
Less than two weeks after the arrest, State Attorney Mark E. Kohl issued a memo declining to prosecute, in which he cited Hickox v. Tyre ? the 1990 case in which Judge Zloch ruled in favor of William Hickox, who was threatened with an arrest by the Juno Beach Police Department if he filed a complaint about a "confidential" police investigation.
