Appeals panel sends journalist back to prison

by Henry K. Lee

Freelance journalist Josh Wolf returned to federal prison Friday after refusing to produce the outtakes of video footage he shot at a violent San Francisco protest in July 2005.

"Even though they're going to take me into custody, they can't silence me," Wolf, 24, said at a news conference before he turned himself in at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin. "It's frightening. I don't feel I should have to return to prison. It is an attack on journalists."

Wolf, 24, spent a month at the same Dublin prison but was released on his own recognizance Sept. 1 while he appealed his contempt citation for refusing to comply with a federal grand jury subpoena.

Last week, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Wolf's appeal. The same three judges granted a federal prosecutor's motion to revoke bail Monday.

Wolf faces the prospect of being held until the grand jury's term expires next July.

"It's just an unfortunate and unjust and illegal act for Josh to be jailed for not turning over his unedited tape," said one of Wolf's supporters, filmmaker Kevin Epps, 36, of San Francisco.

Before surrendering, Wolf hugged several supporters, handed his watch to a friend and smoked one last cigarette.

Wolf's return to prison came a day after a federal judge ordered two Chronicle reporters to prison for as long as a year and a half unless they reveal their sources of confidential grand jury testimony about star athletes' use of steroids. The reporters, however, can remain free while their appeal is heard.

Attorneys for Wolf plan to ask the full Ninth Circuit Appeals Court in San Francisco next month to review the case. The court's three-judge panel cited "the long-established obligation of a reporter to comply with grand jury subpoenas" in ruling against Wolf.

Wolf claimed a journalist's right to withhold unpublished material as well as confidential sources. Those rights are protected by California's shield law, but that law does not apply in federal court.

The subpoena for Wolf's footage was issued by a grand jury investigating the alleged attempted burning of a San Francisco police car at an anarchist-led rally July 8, 2005. Prosecutors maintain the attempted burning was a federal crime because the Police Department receives money from Washington.

The incident was not depicted in footage of the protest that local television stations purchased from Wolf. He says it is not shown in the outtakes, either.