News reporter is subpoenaed

Ben Winslow, a Deseret Morning News reporter who has been covering the criminal proceedings involving FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, has been subpoenaed to testify in the case now pending in St. George.

Winslow was served with a subpoena Thursday morning by one of Jeffs' defense attorneys, Walter Bugden. The subpoena orders Winslow to appear in 5th District Court today to testify.

Jeffrey Hunt, attorney for the newspaper, said the Deseret Morning News has filed a motion to quash the subpoena and is seeking an emergency hearing from 5th District Judge James Shumate, who is presiding over the Jeffs case in Washington County.

"I was advised by Mr. Bugden that he would seek to have Ben Winslow reveal his confidential news sources on the witness stand," Hunt said.

The Deseret Morning News recently stirred up controversy by publishing a courtroom photograph of a handwritten note held by Jeffs. In the note, Jeffs stated he was not and is not a prophet. The note's contents were confirmed by independent sources.

In a document filed with the court regarding the note controversy, Bugden wrote that the only sources who could have confirmed its contents were jailers or transportation officers, who Bugden said had no right to read the note or provide information to Winslow about it. In doing so, Bugden argued, the officers jeopardized Jeffs' right to a fair trial.

Bugden wrote that the best way to "get to the bottom of the law enforcement leak" is to put Winslow on the stand, place him under oath and question him about the identity of his sources.

"The combined power of the administration of the oath and this court's inherent powers of contempt will assist in ferreting out the identity of Ben Winslow's law enforcement sources that have compromised Mr. Jeffs' ability to receive a fair trial," Bugden wrote.

Deseret Morning News Editor Joe Cannon called the subpoena "improper" and "inappropriate."

"There is no room for this kind of action in the First Amendment," Cannon said. "James Madison said, 'Freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and should be inviolable."'

If Winslow is asked to reveal his news sources, "our policy is not to reveal sources," Cannon said. "Our policy is to stand by our sources. This goes to the heart of the First Amendment.

"We also stand by our reporters," Cannon said.

Jeffs, 51, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice for allegedly performing a marriage ceremony between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

Jeffs for some time was on the run and landed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. He ultimately was arrested during a traffic stop in Nevada last year.