The National Trial Lawyers
  • Home
    • Meet Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Mission & Goals
    • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • News
  • Membership Directory
    • Top 100 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 100 Map – Criminal Defense
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Criminal Defense
  • Top 100
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 100 President’s Message
    • Diplomat
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 100 Badge
    • Media
  • Top 40
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Bootcamp
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 40 President’s Message
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 40 Badge
    • Media
  • Specialty Assoc
    • About
    • Shop
    • Officers
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Media
  • Nominate
    • Top 100
    • Top 40
    • Specialty Association
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer of the Year
    • Trial Team of the Year
    • America’s Most Influential Trial Lawyer
    • America’s Most Influential Law Firm
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Shop
  • Magazine
    • A-List
  • Education and Networking Agenda
    • Trial Lawyers Summit
      • Summit Sponsors
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Boot Camp
    • Mass Torts Made Perfect
    • The Lanier Master Class 5.0 Trial Academy 2021
    • Webinars
  • Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

Appeals Court Reverses Order to Florida Newspaper to Unpublish Jailhouse Transcripts

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Eleanor Smith
Frederick Cobia

Convicted murderer Frederick Cobia

Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled on Dec. 22 that the Palm Beach Post may continue to publish jailhouse transcripts of taped telephone conversations, posted on its website.

The ruling reverses Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jack Schramm Cox, who ordered the Palm Beach Post to unpublish the posted material from its website. In a one-page order, the appeals court said, “The order prohibiting petitioner from publishing transcripts of the witness on its website and requiring that those which were previously published be removed is quashed. The order sealing the records is quashed as overbroad. An opinion addressing all issues will issue.”

A Prior Restraint on Speech

The published transcripts consisted of taped telephone recordings in which a jailhouse informant bragged about his ability to elicit confessions from fellow inmates. Judge Cox found it necessary to prohibit the Post from publishing any more transcripts of taped phone calls convicted murderer Frederick Cobia has had from jail since the time of his arrest in 2009.

Cobia testified in two murder cases in which he claimed the defendants confessed to him, according to the Post. Also set to testify in three more cases, Cobia has been listed as a prosecution witness in 23 cases in the last 2½ years.

No Precedent Since Historical Censorship

See also: Yelp Dodges a Bullet in Case over Carpet Cleaner Maligned by Commenters

Post attorney Martin Reeder said, “[This is] judicial censorship. We have a free press in this country, so we normally don’t permit judges to censor what’s in the newspaper. It’s remarkable in that it’s a prior restraint, which is extraordinary in itself, but it orders the paper to take down information that was already published. It’s as though the judge ordered them to take out scissors and cut holes in the newspaper. It’s kind of baffling.”

The term censorship derives from the official duties of the Roman censor who, beginning in 443 B.C., conducted the census by counting, assessing, and evaluating the populace. Originally neutral in tone, the term has come to mean the suppression of ideas or images by the government or others with authority.

Societies have practiced various forms of censorship throughout history in the belief that the community, as represented by the government, was responsible for molding the individual. The English-speaking world began wrestling with issues of censorship in the seventeenth century.

Prior restraint

In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. When a U.S. government agency attempts to prohibit speech or writing, the party being censored frequently raises these First Amendment rights. Such cases usually involve communication that the government – or in this case, the judiciary – perceives as harmful to itself or the public.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint on pure speech, nor has [the newspaper’s] counsel found a Florida appellate decision upholding such a restraint,” the Post wrote in its petition to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

To comply with the order, the Post removed two paragraphs from the online version of an Oct. 15 story it published this year about prosecutors’ frequent use of Cobia as a jailhouse informant. The Post also removed its published allegations that Cobia receives special treatment in exchange for his cooperation. The newspaper posted a note at the top of the original story to explain the situation and the judge’s ruling:

“EDITOR’S NOTE: Under the Nov. 30, 2015, order of Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jack Schramm Cox, The Palm Beach Post has removed transcripts of portions of recordings of phone calls made by Frederick Cobia while being held in the Palm Beach County Jail. Also removed from a previous version of this story are two paragraphs that included quotations from the transcripts. The Post is appealing Cox’s ruling.”

The case is Palm Beach Newspapers, LLC. V. State Of Florida, Case No.: 4D15-4572

Posted in Blog, Civil Rights, Criminal Law / DUI

Comments are closed.

News Categories

Subscribe to Blog and VFJ via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog, the Voice for Justice and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Read about other Top Jury Verdicts

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that the United States has[Read More...]
Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it used recycl[Read More...]
Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

DEUTSCHE Bank AG agreed to pay US$130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manip[Read More...]
Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing has agreed to pay just over $2.5 billion to resolve a federal charge of “criminal misconduct” for how its [Read More...]
Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has le[Read More...]

#LegalNews

@@TheNTLtop100

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Attorney information and content provided on this website is provided for the benefit of members of The National Trial Lawyers and as a public service by Legal Associations Management, Inc. The website and all data are the property of Legal Associations Management, Inc. Data, including without limitation attorney information and content, on the site may not be mined, sold, or used commercially for any purpose without the explicit written consent of Legal Associations Management, Inc. This site may not be accessed by any automated program for extracting data for any use. By accessing and using the site you agree that you will not develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape data or otherwise copy profiles and other data. Unauthorized use or attempted unauthorized use of this system may subject you to both civil and criminal penalties.