After delays, trial for suspect in journalist’s murder set to begin

Friends of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:

Welcome back to your newsletter around press freedom violations in the United States. Find archived editions here, and get this newsletter directly in your inbox by signing up here.

A milestone and a thank you

This Friday, Aug. 2, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker will reach an impressive milestone — seven years since the website of our news database launched. Now in our eighth year of documenting aggressions against the press in the U.S., the relevance of the Tracker is not theoretical. There are more than 2,000 journalists and news organizations inside the database, captured in more than 1,000 assaults, 340 arrests or detainments, 230 subpoenas — including for confidential source material — and more across our 11 categories. Plus, in our analysis section readers can find these newsletters and other in-depth articles.

Our first tweet

Thanks to our partners and all who support us, and especially thanks to the journalists and news organizations who understand how important it is that press freedom aggressions happening across the country are documented here.

After many delays, slain journalist’s murder trial set to begin

Within days of the September 2022 stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, Nevada law enforcement arrested Robert Telles, a former Clark County public administrator, under suspicion of murder. Telles, who was the subject of previous and ongoing reporting by German, has been in custody since his arrest, pleading not guilty during an October 2022 arraignment.

With an original trial date set for spring 2023, delays have centered around the Review-Journal’s attempts to protect German’s electronic devices from unauthorized search. Six devices — a cellphone, multiple computers and a hard drive — were seized in 2022 as part of the murder investigation, a routine measure.

The Review-Journal argued — all the way to the state’s Supreme Court — that those devices were equally protected by Nevada’s shield law in German’s death as they were during his life. In a landmark October 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that the law, designed to protect journalists from forced disclosure of their sources, applied posthumously as well.

This January, Nevada District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt, who is presiding over the trial, authorized a “search team” composed of newspaper staff and attorneys to begin to review German’s devices. Telles, who had been acting as his own attorney for more than a year, also hired a new defense attorney.

In February, the search team revealed that a 2022 death threat had been found in German’s saved phone messages. And in March, the trial was postponed as prosecutors asked for more time to review evidence from the devices and evidence around a bribery investigation involving Telles. Telles also faces a federal lawsuit alleging employment discrimination.

The Review-Journal reported that in a court hearing last week, attorneys asked for a delay, and Leavitt rescheduled the trial for Aug. 12. Attorney Ashley Kissinger, who represents the outlet, told the judge that the search of the last device to be reviewed, German’s laptop, had been completed.

German is one of seven journalists listed as killed in the Tracker database.

Israel-Gaza war protests

In the last few newsletters, I’ve highlighted how protests in the U.S. around the Israel-Gaza war have taken a toll on the journalists covering those demonstrations. The majority of arrests or detainments of journalists this year — 35 of 39 — occurred at Israel-Gaza war protests, as did the majority of assaults — 45 of 55.

In one day, nearly a dozen journalists faced violence while covering protests that began outside a Los Angeles synagogue, Adas Torah. It’s the single highest number of attacks on journalists by individuals that we’ve ever documented outside of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Senior reporter Stephanie Sugars pulled the day’s events together: