Illinois reporter subpoenaed in civil rights lawsuit; judge sets order aside

Denise Crosby, a reporter for The Beacon-News in Aurora, Illinois, was subpoenaed on Sept. 15, 2022, to testify in a civil rights lawsuit in connection with an interview she published in 2018, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The subpoena was set aside by a federal judge on Oct. 24.

In the lawsuit, filed in 2020, Nayelli Perez alleged that she was terminated by the police departments in the City of Aurora and the nearby village of Gilberts in part because her brother appeared on the Aurora Police Department’s database of gang members.

Perez’s complaint cited a 2018 article by Crosby entitled, “Police in Aurora, Elgin defend gang lists amid growing criticism,” to support her allegations that the Aurora Police Department had faced criticism for a lack of representation by Black and Hispanic members. The complaint also cited the article’s interview with an Aurora alderwoman, Juany Garza, about the gang list.

Perez’s September 2022 subpoena of Crosby sought to question the reporter about her interview with Garza, which Perez claimed contained statements by Garza inconsistent with her deposition testimony. Perez demanded Crosby bring to the deposition all “documents, including emails, text messages, audio or video recordings, relating to statements” attributed to the alderwoman.

In an Oct. 11 motion to set aside the subpoena, Crosby’s attorney Steven P. Mandell called it a “side show” intended not to obtain evidence but aimed at “impeaching the alderwoman on an irrelevant and collateral matter and embarrassing Plaintiff’s municipality opponent.”

He argued that the subpoena imposed an undue burden on his client as a member of the press, and that it could chill her future reporting. He also asserted that the information sought from Crosby was not relevant to Perez’s case, and that the document request was overly broad.

Perez filed an Oct. 18 response opposing that motion, and Crosby replied Oct. 21.

Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez granted Crosby’s motion to set aside the subpoena Oct. 24, ruling that the order would impose “an undue burden and is unreasonable under the circumstances because the information sought is of marginal relevance and Plaintiff does not have a substantial need for such information.”

In an email to the Tracker, Mandell noted that because Crosby was subpoenaed in federal court, she was not able to rely on the Illinois Reporter’s Shield law. He added that the court’s undue burden ruling had “real significance” in light of a prior ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declining to recognize a reporter's privilege.