JURIST - Paper Chase: DOJ Hatfill anthrax settlement may moot contempt case against reporter Locy

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice announced [press release] Friday that it has settled a lawsuit [settlement text, PDF] brought by former US Army germ-warfare researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill [WP profile], a development that may moot a landmark contempt case against former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [JURIST news archive] now awaiting a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Under the settlement, Hatfill would drop all damages claims against the government in return for a lump sum payment of $2.825 million and a 20-year annuity of $150,000 amounting to $3 million. Hatfill had initially sued [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] the Department alleging that it violated the US Privacy Act [text] by providing personal information and information about him to journalists - including Locy - during its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder] in which he was at one point named a "person of interest". Locy had refused to disclose her sources in discovery, arguing that the information Hatfill was seeking was not central to his lawsuit. In a letter [PDF text] to the Court of Appeals Friday informing it of the settlement, Hatfill lawyer Christopher Wright said that Locy's evidence was no longer needed by his client. Bloomberg has more

In March, US District Judge Reggie Walton found Locy in contempt of court [order, PDF; JURIST report] for not disclosing her sources and ordered her to pay a fine of $500 a day, increasing to $1000 a day after one week and then up to $5000 a day after two weeks, the costs of which could not be covered by her former employer. Locy obtained an emergency stay of that order from the Court of Appeals and oral arguments [JURIST reports] on the merits of the sanctions were heard last month. The appeals court has yet to make a formal ruling on the status of the contempt case in light of the Hatfill settlement, but Locy said late Friday that she and her lawyers are hopeful that the deal would end the matter. Locy will be a professor at Washington & Lee University's journalism school this fall.

Editor's Note: Toni Locy served as a JURIST student staff member while pursuing her MSL at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2006-07.

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