A lawyer of a man accused of robbing 11 Marin County banks is suing the local newspaper to stop the publication of the man’s photo. The only problem is that the Marin Independent Journal has already published his photo. The IJ is determined to defeat what they call “an outrageous attempt at censorship.” (Marin Independent Journal, February 11, 2014, by Gary Klien)
The IJ is waging a battle with the Marin County Public Defender’s office which the IJ editor Robert Sterling claims is seeking to violate the newspaper’s free press rights. The public defender was upset that the newspaper took photos of the alleged bank robber Christopher Wootton outside the courtroom and filed a brief to block them from publishing the photos again. The public defender says the photos would hurt Wootton’s chance for a fair trial by messing up witnesses’ in-court identification testimony. (Marin Independent Journal, February 10, 2014, by Robert Sterling)