Idaho editor subpoenaed for communications in defamation case

Shelbie Harris, assistant editor of the Idaho State Journal, was subpoenaed by the plaintiff in a Pocatello, Idaho, defamation case on April 19, 2024, for materials including his communications with one of the suit’s defendants.

In the underlying state court case, business owner Kris Taylor named lawyer Patrick Davis and others in a lawsuit in August 2023 accusing them of defamation. The suit, ultimately resolved in favor of Davis, was based on comments he had made about an embezzlement trial for a 2022 story published in EastIdahoNews.com.

After the defamation suit was filed, both Taylor and Davis subpoenaed EastIdahoNews.com reporter Kaitlyn Hart, who had interviewed Davis in connection with the case; Hart later turned over her recording of the interview to Davis at his request.

Separately, EastIdahoNews.com editor Nate Sunderland was deposed and testified in court in 2024 about how widely the story was distributed.

The April 2024 subpoena to Harris sought written communications that could relate to the defamation case, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. These included communications between Harris or other Idaho State Journal employees, and Davis and Kevin Ball, another defendant.

It also asked for written communications between staff at the Idaho State Journal and the Post Register — another outlet that received a subpoena the same day — related to Ball or Taylor, as well as other materials related to reporting on the plaintiff and defendants in the case.

An attorney for Taylor told the Tracker that the subpoenas were issued to learn if Davis had made allegedly defamatory comments to the Idaho State Journal or Post Register. The attorney said Davis denied making such comments, and that Davis gave the outlets permission to turn over his communications with them.

Harris told the Tracker that he had an existing relationship with Davis and had briefly discussed the embezzlement case with him over email, but did not pursue the story because it was outside his coverage area. He said that after receiving the subpoena, he turned over one or two emails at the request of his publisher, “and that was the end of it.”