Bryan Anderson
July 06, 2021 - 10:12 PM
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) â A North Carolina Superior Court judge put a small-town newspaper editor behind bars last month after one of his reporters used an audio recorder for note-taking purposes at a murder trial â a punishment the paper and media rights groups consider excessive.
Judge Stephan Futrell sentenced Gavin Stone, the news editor of the Richmond County Daily Journal, to five days in jail before having him handcuffed in court and hauled off to jail. Stone was released the next day but still faces the possibility of more time in lockup.
Brian Bloom, the paper's publisher, acknowledged that his reporter shouldnât have had the recorder in court because it was not allowed but criticized the judgeâs move to imprison an editor for a minor infraction committed by a colleague.