Maryland reporter subpoenaed to testify in Texas murder trial

Journalist Jamie Leigh Thompson was subpoenaed to testify in a Texas murder trial on July 31, 2023, in connection with a 2017 story she wrote on the case for Dallas monthly D Magazine, according to court filings and news reports.

Thompson, a former contributing editor for the magazine, was living in Maryland when she received the legal order, so asked a court there to determine whether she could invoke the Maryland or Texas reporter’s shield law to avoid testifying at the trial.

A Maryland appellate court ultimately ruled in January 2024 that she would have to travel to Texas to plead her case under that state’s shield law. Later that month, however, the murder charges against the defendant were dropped.

Dallas County prosecutors had also issued subpoenas in October 2023 to D Magazine and Fort Worth TV station KTVT, which had produced a news report about the case; those subpoenas were struck down in November 2023.

For her story about the high-profile death in 2016 of Dallas lawyer Ira Tobolowsky, Thompson had corresponded by email with a suspect, Steven Aubrey. After Aubrey’s arrest on murder charges in 2022, prosecutors in Dallas County subpoenaed Thompson to testify at his trial about their correspondence.

According to court filings, Thompson had voluntarily turned over a “number of” emails from Aubrey to Tobolowsky’s son after the article was published. The son later gave them to prosecutors. The state sought to compel Thompson to testify at the trial “to authenticate the messages and to fill in the gaps that might exist.”

On Aug. 3, 2023, Dallas County District Judge Hector Garza issued an order to secure Thompson’s presence at the trial. On Aug. 8, the Montgomery County state’s attorney in Maryland filed a petition on behalf of the state of Texas asking the Montgomery County Circuit Court to order Thompson to appear and testify at the Texas trial.

Thompson filed an objection to the petition on Aug. 28. In that objection, and at a Sept. 7 hearing, Thompson argued that she was shielded from testifying under the First Amendment and Texas and Maryland state laws that protect journalists from being forced to disclose newsgathering materials.

Thomson asked the Maryland court to first rule on this question before ordering her to travel to Texas, which would subject her to an undue hardship. The Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that day that Thompson had to make her reporter’s privilege argument before the Texas court.

The journalist appealed that ruling on Oct. 6. But the Appellate Court of Maryland upheld the lower court’s decision on Jan. 9, 2024.

In its decision, the Maryland court found that Thompson doesn’t enjoy protection under the Maryland press shield law for news reporting conducted while in Texas. “If Thompson contends that she has a privilege not to testify or not to answer certain questions at some future trial, she may present her arguments to the Texas court,” the court added.

Just three days later, Texas prosecutors dropped the charges against Aubrey, even as they left open the possibility of reinstating the case.

Lin Weeks, an attorney for Thompson and senior staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told Maryland’s The Daily Record he believed Thompson’s case should have been heard by the Maryland court.

“Maryland and Texas both have strong protections for journalists’ unpublished work product,” Weeks said, “and a Maryland court could look at either state’s law on reporter’s privilege and see that Ms. Thompson shouldn’t be required to testify.”

Thompson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that while the subpoena ultimately didn’t impact her work, “I think it's important to fight every battle of this sort and hold the line. Law enforcement has many powerful tools — weapons, subpoenas, warrants — and they should be able to hold their own in a court of law while bringing serious charges against citizens, not relying on journalists, who lose credibility if they lose independence.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a comment from Jamie Leigh Thompson.