Ralph Kates Quotations

Our argument is an informed public is the most important asset the county has. The public cannot be informed if every time someone talks to a news reporter there is a danger that some county detective is going to find out who they are and what they said.

Our position is that our reporter will not testify to the district attorney or be interviewed by the district attorney or detectives from the District Attorney's Office. The Times Leader and its reporters are not investigators for the prosecution or the defense in any case; they are simply news reporters.

The subpoena is an attempt to compel the reporter to be a secret investigator for the District Attorney's Office and we're not going to allow that to happen.

This is a total victory, everything we requested from the court. We did not want any confidential source to be identified and we did not want to produce any reporter's notes. That's what the judge provided.

All they said is they wanted to see everything connected with the case. It was a fishing expedition and an attempt to use a news reporter as a secret deputy of detectives.

The conduct of the defendants shocks the conscience and demonstrates deliberate indifference to the rights, privileges and immunities of the Times Leader and the public.