CJOnline ordered to release poster's information

A Shawnee County District Court judge has ordered The Topeka Capital-Journal to relinquish identifying information of a CJOnline.com commenter claiming to be a juror in a high-profile murder trial.

District Judge Steven Ebberts on Friday denied the newspaper’s request to quash the district attorney’s subpoena for the information. As a result, CJOnline will have to release the poster’s name, address and Internet Protocol address to the district attorney.

At issue is a CJOnline commenter posting under the pseudonym of “BePrepared.” According to court documents, BePrepared accessed a news story posted on July 19 while the person and other jurors were deliberating the guilt or innocence of Anceo D. Stovall on July 21.

On July 24 — after a four-week trial and three days of deliberation — the jury convicted Stovall of the aggravated robbery of co-defendant Bayate Covington, who was beaten and robbed of his shoes by five men. The jurors found Stovall not guilty of the burglary of a Jeep.

However, the jury was unable reach verdicts on the remaining nine charges, which included the July 21, 2011, shooting death of Natalie Gibson and the wounding of her life partner, Lori Allison, during a robbery.

District Attorney Chad Taylor said Stovall would be tried again on the other charges.

Stovall’s defense attorney, Jonathan Phelps, subsequently filed a motion seeking a new trial, saying the online posting by a juror constitutes juror misconduct and prejudiced Stovall’s right to a fair trial.

Interference with the judicial process is a level 9 nonperson felony, according to Ebberts’ decision.

In his ruling, Ebberts agreed with the district attorney that poster’s identity was relevant to an investigation of criminal misconduct during the trial. The office has claimed that without the information “a miscarriage of justice” would result, Ebberts wrote.

He also agreed that the district attorney’s office couldn’t reasonably obtain the poster’s identity through any means other than CJOnline. The juror suspected of writing as BePrepared asserted his Fifth Amendment rights of protection against self-incrimination in an earlier court proceeding.

CJOnline has decided not to appeal Ebberts’ decision, said attorney Mike Merriam, the newspaper’s attorney.

“This was not unexpected,” he said of the ruling. “It’s disappointing, but I understand his reasoning.”

A motion for a retrial has been set for 2 p.m. Thursday.