Jailed U.S. Political Prisoner in Los Angeles Gets OK from Sheriff for TV Interview

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Mar 19, 2010, 06:10 ET

FULL DISCLOSURE REPORTS (R)

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The Full Disclosure Network® presents a seven minute video news update (http://tiny.cc/jail774) on the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's sudden reversal of their policy denying on-camera television interview with a county jail inmate who is considered by many observers to be a "political prisoner."

Court corruption fighter Richard I. Fine has been held in L.A. County Central Men's Jail in solitary "coercive confinement" for civil contempt of court since March 4, 2009. The video features Sheriff Department's spokesman Steve Whitmore describing the hazardous jail conditions and why the Sheriff dropped his long standing opposition to the interview.

Richard I. Fine, is a prominent anti-trust attorney who has been incarcerated for a year with no release date set and no bail, following his attempt to disqualify L.A. Superior Court Judge David Yaffe for accepting illegal payments from L. A. County, a party involved in a case before him. The entire interview will be featured on cable channels in major cities throughout the United States in April.

SHERIFF DROPS OPPOSITION TO INMATE INTERVIEW

On March 11, 2010 County Sheriff Leroy Baca reversed his long standing opposition to the interview with Richard I. Fine, whose incarceration has been described "political” in news coverage, most notably in the Sacramento Bee column of Dan Walters http://tiny.cc/Walters. Fine has been held in L.A. County Central Men's Jail without a conviction, a jury trial, a release date or even a hearing date.

Sheriff Leroy Baca's decision to let Full Disclosure Network Producers Leslie Dutton and T.J. Johnston video record a one hour interview with Fine in the jail came almost two months after Sterling Norris of the Judicial Watch, the public interest legal organization filed a lawsuit in the U.S. California Central District. The complaint requested declaratory relief asking the court to hold the Sheriff's policy regarding media requests for inmate interviews unlawful on the basis of violations of First Amendment Rights of the Press. A six minute video preview of the FDN Series entitled “Judicial Benefits and Court Corruption” can be viewed online here: http://tiny.cc/preview25