Once a Felon, Is Man Now a Victim?
Steven Gates figured his criminal past was so far behind him that his friends and colleagues would never learn of it. He was married, lived in a prestigious neighborhood in San Bernardino County, attended church regularly, had built a successful career in sales and owned a business with his wife.
Then came the breathless phone call from his mother one night: You are on the Discovery Channel, she told him.
Gates switched on the TV and discovered that all his efforts to put his past behind him had been in vain. "I was horrified," Gates said in an interview. "I almost threw up."
His name and photograph were shown on a program about a 1988 San Diego murder for hire in which Gates had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. The hourlong episode was aired several times.
Gates filed an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit but has not yet been permitted to take it to trial. In a ruling expected soon, the California Supreme Court will decide whether ex-felons like Gates are entitled to privacy when their crimes occurred long ago and they have fully rehabilitated.
"Gates is a man whose last offense took place
The news media and the entertainment industry, siding with the Discovery Channel, have warned that stories based on old crimes might not be written or produced if their subjects can recover big jury awards for loss of privacy.
If so, their lawyers said, such movies as "Goodfellas," about the true story of a mobster and FBI informant, and "Boys Don't Cry," based on the 1993 murder of Teena Brandon, might become vulnerable to lawsuits.
"The important societal interest in rehabilitating former felons is served in better ways than by muzzling the media and their fellow citizens," said Louis P. Petrich, a lawyer who is representing Discovery Communications Inc., which owns the Discovery Channel.
Gates said he lost clients after the television show was broadcast. His wife also lost clients in the beauty salon the couple owned together. Worse, Gates said, was the anxiety he felt wondering if people he knew believed, wrongly, that he was involved in a killing.
"You just don't know who is looking at you and who is judging you because of what this show reported," said Gates, 51.
Last year, a San Bernardino County judge awarded Gates a certificate of rehabilitation, recognizing his rehabilitation and restoring his legal rights.
