Mayer v. State

523 So. 2d 1171, 1988 WL 16862
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 4, 1988
Docket87-1155
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 523 So. 2d 1171 (Mayer v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mayer v. State, 523 So. 2d 1171, 1988 WL 16862 (Fla. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

523 So.2d 1171 (1988)

Cynthia MAYER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 87-1155.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

March 4, 1988.
Rehearing Denied April 27, 1988.

*1172 George K. Rahdert of Rahdert, Acosta & Dickson, P.A., St. Petersburg, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Katherine V. Blanco, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

CAMPBELL, Judge.

Appellant, Cynthia Mayer, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times (Times), appeals the final judgment adjudicating her guilty of indirect criminal contempt of court and the resulting impositions of a $300 fine and a suspended sentence of ten days in the county jail. We affirm.

Appellant's action, which the trial court found constituted contempt of court, was the publication by the Times of an article written by appellant containing information that she had obtained at a child custody hearing conducted pursuant to section 39.408, Florida Statutes (1985). Appellant appeared in the trial court at the time scheduled for the custody hearing. Counsel for the couple seeking custody of the child, the guardian ad litem for the child and the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), objected to appellant's presence and requested the trial judge to conduct a closed hearing to insure that the proceedings be kept confidential. Counsel for the child's grandmother, in whose custody HRS had previously placed the child, did not object to appellant's presence. Counsel for the child's natural mother urged that appellant be allowed to attend the hearing.

The parties urging closure were unprepared to cite authority in support of their position to the trial judge. The trial judge was concerned that there was authority mandating a closed hearing. However, being unsure of that authority and noting the editorial policy of the Times not to print names of juveniles, the trial judge agreed not to prohibit appellant from attending the *1173 hearing. Instead, appellant's presence at the hearing was expressly conditioned on her agreement not to publish information obtained by reason of her presence in the event the trial judge determined that there was authority mandating that the hearing be closed and confidential. The trial judge informed appellant and the parties that she would review the authorities later that day and inform appellant of her determination as to the applicable law. No request for continuance of the hearing was made by appellant or any of the parties.

The hearing proceeded without objection to the conditions imposed for the conduct of the hearing and appellant's continued presence. Although the trial judge invited appellant to contact the Times' legal counsel to determine if he might provide some direction as to the applicable law relating to appellant's presence and her right to report the proceedings, appellant adhered to the Times' policy that a reporter was never to call counsel directly. However, at the noon recess of the hearing, appellant advised the city editor of the Times, her immediate supervisor, of the situation. The city editor, in turn, advised a senior editor who sought advice of counsel. The senior editor then advised the city editor to instruct appellant to withdraw from the hearing because of objections to the trial court's conditions and to avoid using information obtained at the hearing. When appellant again contacted her city editor, she was instructed to withdraw from the hearing but was mistakenly led to believe she had permission to use the information she had already obtained at the hearing. After the noon recess, upon her withdrawal from the hearing, the trial judge advised appellant that based upon the court's previous conditions and dependent on the court's further research of the law, appellant could be ordered not to disclose what she had previously learned. Appellant did not object to the court's instruction nor did she inform the court that she no longer intended to be bound by her previous consent to the court's condition to her attendance at the hearing.

Later that evening, the trial judge contacted appellant by telephone and informed her that she, the trial judge, had determined that the hearing was required by statute to be confidential. Appellant was ordered not to use the information obtained at the hearing. Appellant neither objected to the court's orders nor informed the trial judge that she intended to publish the information obtained. Appellant completed writing her article containing information obtained at the hearing and submitted it to the Times' night editing desk. The next day the article containing the restricted information was published by the Times.

On motion of the child's guardian ad litem, the trial judge issued an order to appellant to show cause why she should not be held in contempt for having published the restricted information. Counsel for the Times moved to intervene for a rehearing on the court's oral order closing the hearing. The court heard arguments on those motions and denied the motion for rehearing, ruling that the custody hearing was statutorily mandated to be closed and confidential by the requirements of section 39.408(2)(c), Florida Statutes (1985). Several weeks later, the trial court tried the contempt charge against appellant. Appellant testified that she did not intend to embarrass the trial judge or hinder the judicial process. The Times' editors apologized to the trial judge for their roles in the process by which the offending article was printed and said that they regretted the circuitous and bureaucratic manner in which they had addressed the problem. The trial judge determined that she had been embarrassed and the judicial process thwarted by the deliberate and intentional publication of information that appellant had been instructed, without objection and in the presence of six lawyers, not to publish. Accordingly, appellant was adjudicated guilty of indirect criminal contempt of court.

Appellant's principal argument in this appeal is that the trial court's adjudication of indirect criminal contempt is constitutionally infirm as a patently invalid order of prior restraint in violation of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press. Appellant relies chiefly on Globe Newspaper Co. *1174 v. Superior Court, 457 U.S. 596, 102 S.Ct. 2613, 73 L.Ed.2d 248 (1982); Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia, 435 U.S. 829, 98 S.Ct. 1535, 56 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978); Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. District Court, 430 U.S. 308, 97 S.Ct. 1045, 51 L.Ed.2d 355 (1977); and Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 96 S.Ct. 2791, 49 L.Ed.2d 683 (1976).

We agree with the principles of law stated in those cases and others relied upon by appellant. We do not agree with their applicability to the specific factual situation in which appellant allowed herself to become enmeshed. Appellant's deliberate contemptuous acts were in direct violation of the trial judge's orders resulting from the judge's commendable attempt to adhere to the law of this state while accommodating the rights of appellant and the parties to the cause below.

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Bluebook (online)
523 So. 2d 1171, 1988 WL 16862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mayer-v-state-fladistctapp-1988.