Unable to plead ‘reporter,’ Matthews will go to jailOriginally published in Current, Oct. 30, 2000
By Stephanie LashLarry Matthews is going to jail. On Oct. 2, [2000], the Supreme Court announced it would not review the case of the independent radio producer convicted of trafficking in child pornography over the Internet, and NPR dropped him as a temporary employee. Now Matthews will serve 18 months in federal prison.
Outside link: Joseph Gomes' article in Brills' Content magazine Matthews has always asserted that he entered chat rooms, using names like Mr. Mature and Daddyspanks, and exchanged photos, as part of his research for a story about online child porn. He maintains that the research was protected by the First Amendment, but pleaded guilty in February 1998 only because a judge barred him from using that defense.
"All we ever asked for was a trial—that was all we were ever asking the Supreme Court," said Beth Farber, Matthews' court-appointed lawyer. "He never denied what he did, and there were never any findings by a jury as to why he did what he did. The government took the position that it didn't matter why he did it, it's still a crime."
NPR had supported Matthews during his three-year-long legal battle, but ended that relationship on the day the Supreme Court let his conviction stand.
"NPR has supported the effort of Larry Matthews, a temporary employee, to assert certain First Amendment issues as a defense to his criminal conviction," an NPR statement said. "The U.S. Supreme Court having denied review of his case, Mr. Matthews' legal process is now ended. Consistent with established policy, NPR has chosen not to renew his assignment."
The legal process was a long one that Matthews had hoped would allow him to explain his side of the story: that he had to ingratiate himself with the online pedophile community in order to gather research for a freelance story he was thinking of pitching. When U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams Jr. denied Matthews' use of the First Amendment as a defense, Matthews filed a conditional guilty plea. That allowed him to file an immediate appeal, bypass a criminal trial and hope that a circuit court would overturn the decision. But in April, the Fourth Circuit upheld Williams' ruling, and Matthews appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court's decision did not come as a complete surprise to many court observers, who note that the circuit court judges had not filed a split opinion on the case—a factor that typically makes the Supreme Court more likely to hear an appeal.
Matthews was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which filed an amicus brief in his behalf that was also signed by NPR, the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Lucy Daglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee, bemoaned the fact that Matthews was unable to present his side of the story to a jury.
"I feel bad it's come to this," she said. "I think the Supreme Court put everybody in a bad spot. . . . I think that it is really frustrating and unreasonable that a journalist—let's assume that they really were working on a story--wouldn't be able to explain to a jury that they were trying to expose the situation. It's conceivable that he was working on a story on how well the FBI is investigating child porn. I think you'll see a major chill on stories done on this societal issue."
Farber has been negotiating the conditions of Matthews' jail sentence, which will likely begin in the next few weeks in a federal facility in the mid-Atlantic region. She says that he hopes he will be able to work as a journalist after the year-and-a-half in prison.
"From his point of view, I believe, he took a hit for the journalistic community," Farber said. "There's no doubt in my mind that's what happened."
Web page posted Nov. 7, 2000
Current
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md.
E-mail: webcurrent.org
301-270-7240
Copyright 2000
