Press Seeks Access to "Black Book" |
| News organizations in Frederick have gone back to court this month
seeking sanctions and findings of contempt against city officials and the convicted head
of a prostitution ring and her attorney. At issue is the madam’s "black book" purportedly naming public officials as clients of the call-girl ring in the city. The documents were seized in a 1999 police raid but were unexpectedly returned to the madam by Frederick Mayor Jim Grimes earlier this month. The Frederick News-Post and the Associated Press, which had continuously sought access to the documents when they were held by authorities, brought the latest suit after the documents were returned to the madam, Angelika Potter, and the subsequent shredding of most of the material by her lawyer, Richard Bricken. Computer disks containing the black book information may still exist, and a Frederick County Circuit Court judge has ordered all the documents and computer records of the documents preserved in a lock box until the lawsuit and the news organizations’ Public Information Act requests are settled. Media attorney Henry Abrams, who represents the news organizations, argued in his petition that the defendent’s actions were "in utter and willful disregard" of the Maryland Public Information Act and the Maryland Rule of Professional Conduct for lawyers. It accused the city and the attorneys of engaging in "cowboy justice" when they colluded in secret to dispose of evidence critical to pending legal action, including the newspaper’s appeal for access to the documents. - from news reports |
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