Gag Orders

The judge in the case against a Houston mother accused of drowning her five children in the bathtub appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether the woman's husband and the district attorney violated a gag order. At issue is an appearance on Sunday's TV news show "60 Minutes" by Russell Yates and Dist. Atty. Chuck Rosenthal. On the show, Russell Yates spoke in depth about his wife's illness and how he felt the mental health system and a doctor had failed her.

UCLA law professor Gary Blasi isn't the first potential juror to gripe about the inconvenience and time-wasting aspects of jury service. But Blasi, 56, may be among the first whose pique subjected him to a gag order. Concerned about the amount of idle time he and other prospective jurors were spending in the jury assembly room, he decided this week to conduct a survey of his fellow court captives to find out what their attitudes were about the process.

A judge imposed a gag order Friday on attorneys and others connected to the trial of two lawyers whose dog mauled and killed their neighbor. Marjorie Knoller, 45, and Robert Noel, 59, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and keeping a mischievous dog that killed 33-year-old Diane Whipple in January. They remain jailed and have pleaded not guilty. On his own motion, Superior Court Judge James Warren issued the order in hopes it will curtail extensive media coverage.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and his estranged wife weren't even in the courtroom Friday, but fireworks erupted when their lawyers clashed over a proposed gag order that would bar either side from commenting publicly about the couple's increasingly nasty divorce fight. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische declined to issue such an order, which is being sought by Giuliani, saying she didn't have the authority to do so as long as Donna Hanover and her attorneys had not agreed to it.

Upset with news reports about secret FBI recordings, a judge imposed a gag order Thursday on attorneys in the trial of a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. "I felt like we need to try this case in the courtroom and not in the news media," Circuit Judge James Garrett said. The order came after defense lawyer John Robbins said news reports about secret recordings of his client, Thomas Blanton Jr., had tainted the jury pool and warranted a mistrial.

As part of a legal settlement, the city of Compton agreed this week to rescind an order that barred its employees from discussing their work. The Limitations on Public Employee Freedom of Speech order, which was issued last summer, warned employees that they would be fired for disruptive statements that detracted from the business of running the city.

A judge has barred the media from disclosing the new identities of two teenagers who will soon be eligible for parole in the torture slaying of a toddler--one of the most notorious killings in recent British history. In an unprecedented order Monday, Judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss said she was convinced that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both now 18, would be in danger if the public knew who they were and where they lived.

Agreeing with a defense lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union, a judge has reversed himself and lifted a gag order he had imposed in the case of Marie Elise West, the woman accused of the hate-crime slaying of an elderly Latino man she ran over with her car near a bagel shop. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael S. Luros issued the order preventing all parties in the case from discussing it outside of court, including with the media.

Compton's city attorney is raising doubts about his government's controversial new policy of limiting the speech of municipal employees. City Atty. Legrand H. Clegg II said he was not consulted before Compton City Manager John D. Johnson circulated a two-page order earlier this month titled "Limitations on Public Employee Freedom of Speech."