SUMMARY: The blog Crime Scene KC has revealed a blistering letter (Joe Lambe of the KC Star helped get the letter) from a Jackson County judge over KCTV5 showing jurors walking to their cars after the trial. "You placed their lives and welfare in jeopardy," admonished the judge in a letter to TV5 news director Tracy Taylor. 05-21-2008
Judge John Torrence, who oversees Jackson County's Division 14, has written a blistering letter to KCTV over a report aired last week on the Elijah Jones murder trial. There were threats made against several people connected to the case, the judge writes, including the jury. So, Torrence writes, he's furious that KCTV reportedly showed jurors walking to their cars after the trial. "You placed their lives and welfare in jeopardy and you did so unethically, recklessly and unnecessarily. You could easily have reported the story without showing the video of the jurors. "If the directors and producers at Channel 5 weren’t the shameless bottom-feeding predators of the local electronic media that they are, they would be ashamed." Torrence says he'll never let Channel 5 back in his courtroom, and he encourages the other judges to follow suit. Tracy Miller, the station's news director, gave me(Crime Scene KC) this response: “We regret showing the jurors. It was not an important part of the story. We will respond to the judge and tell him that.”
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