Mia’s View: Justice was served

Score one for the people of Huntington– and the field of journalism, I might add.

For the first time in a nonprofessional capacity, I found myself sitting on the hard, wooden pews of the Huntington County Superior Court. Far from a recreational activity, I was unfortunately there to watch – and take the witness stand, if necessary – as my co-worker, Seth Anderson, disputed a workplace violence restraining order.

Filed by County Clerk Fran Felts on behalf of Clerk’s Office employee Pam Fowler, the charge was formally known as a “Petition of Employer for Injunction Prohibiting Violence or Threats of Violence Against Employee.”

Fortunately Judge Jeffrey Heffelfinger saw the Clerk and company’s bogus claim for what it was: A scare tactic, an abuse of power, an attempt to shield dealings in the Clerk’s Office from public scrutiny and a swipe at transparency in local government.

The petition claimed Seth and I “lurked” outside the Clerk’s Office for an hour – which Fran, in her testimony on the witness stand, stretched to two hours. Then Seth “stalked” Pam to her car and “harassed” her by asking her questions.

Although Seth and I have asked questions of officials and citizens all over Huntington, apparently this was enough to have Pam Fowler quaking in her shoes. So much so that she feared not only for herself, but also for the safety of her family. Especially, as Pam testified on the stand, after Seth posed a potential threat to her sister-in-law by sending her a Facebook friend request. (Pam’s sister-in-law happens to be affiliated with the robotics team Seth and his son are a part of.)

This clear threat to the Fowler family’s safety prompted Fran to file this petition which would effectively ban Seth from the Clerk’s Office, could lead to his arrest if he even accidentally came in contact with Pam (not hard to do in our line of work which frequently involves trips to the Courthouse), not to mention tainting his clean record and leaving a smudge on the public’s perception of his character.

In actuality, after entering the Clerk’s Office to ask the employees a question about the make and model of the copy machine (another HuntingtonDaily.com story for another time), we utilized a table and chair set up in the hall outside the Clerk’s Office to open Seth’s laptop and download an Internet file pertaining to one of our stories. We then visited several County offices including the Commissioners’ Office, the Auditor’s Office and the Assessor’s Office – all of which are on the first floor of the Courthouse, while the Clerk’s Office is on the second floor.

We also wanted to confront Pam about her statements regarding the Clerk’s Office controversy that clearly contradicted evidence we had recently obtained through a Freedom of Information request. Since the evidence was e-mail correspondence between Fran, Pam and several other individuals involved in the controversy, we made an effort to catch up with Pam after work away from Fran and other Clerk’s Office employees. (Fran even reluctantly admitted on the stand that, due to the nature of the e-mails, it was reasonable that HuntingtonDaily.com would wish to speak to Pam outside of the Clerk’s Office.)

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to catch up to Pam until she had already left the building. Seth jogged out into the pouring rain to catch up to her, leaving me behind on the Courthouse steps, trying in vain to get the “only for decoration” hood on my knitted jacket to fit over my head to prevent mascara from running in rivulets down my face. (Somehow I always manage to forget my umbrella.)

Seth spoke to Pam as she reached her car (which was parked in a public lot with numerous people nearby). Pam essentially refused to comment and drove away.

Ironically, although I was mentioned in the complaint at least six times, Fran didn’t file the restraining order against me, only Seth. Apparently she decided trying to claim a five-foot-five pregnant woman constituted a “threat of violence” was just a wee bit too frivolous and might be thrown out of court.

Oh wait, but Judge Heffelfinger apparently thought the claim was frivolous and dismissed the petition anyway – without needing testimony from Seth or me. In other words, Pam and Fran, try as they might to sound convincing, condemned the claim with their own testimony. Although, I’m sure the recording Seth had of the entire incident helped as well.

I will never forget the look on Pam Fowler’s face when she realized Seth brought a recording of the “threatening” confrontation to court. Try as he might, County Attorney Bob Garrett, who was representing Pam and Fran, couldn’t get Judge Heffelfinger to dismiss the recording as irrelevant. Or was Bob trying to dismiss it because he knew his case would fall apart?

After Fran’s telling testimony, Judge Heffelfinger had heard enough. In a rare occurrence, the judge grilled Fran with a few poignant questions of his own about whether or not she would have pursued such a complaint against a News Channel 21 reporter. (Questioning is usually left solely up to the attorneys.) Then he granted the motion for a directed verdict made by Seth’s attorney, Justin Wall, and dismissed the claim.

Fran, her face a few shades whiter than usual, stalked down the courtroom’s center aisle through the numerous people who showed up in support of Seth and HuntingtonDaily.com, and left the courtroom angrier than I’ve ever seen her. Somehow I don’t think she’ll try to pull a stunt like that again anytime soon.

Although, I must say, I still shudder to think about the precedent that would have been set in Huntington if Judge Heffelfinger had not seen through Pam’s and Fran’s ruse. I doubt local public officials would attempt to silence larger media sources with bank accounts suited to hire top-notch legal help, not to mention garner perhaps statewide attention.

But what would stop them from intimidating or shutting down smaller media outlets, which often are the eyes and ears of the people on matters that can more easily slide under the radar of the likes of Channel 21?

A seemingly forgotten fact these days is that government officials are elected to serve the people. How can we know if our officials are serving us well if we, the people, are harassed when we ask them questions about activities (particularly questionable ones) going on in their offices? What happens to the validity of the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press if government officials can shut down news outlets that delve too deeply into “their business”?

So Fran, Pam and any government officials and employees who sided with them: Like it or not, we’re still going to be here not only to hold all public officials accountable, but to disseminate important news items – both good and bad – to the public. And I am confident that even if Seth and I fell off the face of the Earth tomorrow, others just as concerned about transparency and accountability in local government would rise up to take our place.

So, citizens of the great City and County of Huntington, justice was served and HuntingtonDaily.com’s First Amendment rights were upheld. We’ve appreciated the local support we’ve received thus far and we will do our best to continue to provide you with great coverage of local politics and events.

Make that two points for the people of Huntington.