BuzzFeed News reporter subpoenaed in Illinois wrongful conviction suit

BuzzFeed News reporter Melissa Segura was subpoenaed for her communications and unpublished work product on Sept. 3, 2024, by the defendant in an ongoing civil lawsuit in Chicago, Illinois.

A judge ruled later that the subpoena could not move forward.

Segura authored an investigation in 2017 reporting that former Chicago Police Department Detective Reynaldo Guevara was accused of framing more than 50 people for murder, and wrote multiple other articles about efforts to overturn convictions on cases he worked.

Guevara is one of eight law enforcement officers sued in 2023 by Jose Cruz, who alleges he was wrongfully convicted of first degree murder and attempted murder 30 years earlier.

At the end of discovery in the suit in September 2024, Guevara subpoenaed Segura — along with multiple other journalists — seeking the journalist’s interview recordings, transcripts, notes and communications concerning Cruz. Segura was not served a copy of the subpoena until Sept. 17, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Attorneys representing Guevara notified the court that they spoke with an attorney representing Segura, who requested an extension until Sept. 24 to review and produce the documents.

During a hearing on Sept. 26, Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes reflected on the potential precedent set by allowing a defendant to subpoena journalists for their notes, outtakes, sources and means.

“I think it’s an important substantive issue of what you can get from reporters,” Fuentes said. “How proper it is to have in a defendant’s playbook: We’re going to slap a bunch of subpoenas on reporters. We’re going to make them hire lawyers. We’re going to have them incur expense. How much does that burden the exercise of the right of access to documents and the exercise to the First Amendment?”

In an order issued the following day, Fuentes ruled that it was too late in the discovery process to allow the subpoenas to Segura and CBS News reporter Jericka Duncan to proceed. However, he permitted the deliberations around subpoenas issued to two other journalists — filmmaker Margaret Byrne and NBC News reporter Maite Amorebieta — to continue.

Segura did not respond to a request for comment.