The criminal investigation related to Councilmember Omar Torres has taken an ugly political turn — with people lining up to either defend or denounce the downtown politician. San José Spotlight knew that would happen when we broke the news Torres was being accused of child sex abuse.
What we didn’t expect is San Jose City Hall would respond to the scandal under its roof by asking me — a journalist for nearly two decades — to reveal my confidential sources.
It’s highly unusual, unethical and alarming.
This morning, I received a call from Carolina Camarena, the city’s public information officer. Camarena has worked in communications for decades and has strong relationships with reporters across Silicon Valley, including me. She sounded uncomfortable as she asked me something she’s never had to ask a reporter before.
She asked me to reveal who’s been providing information to San José Spotlight about the Torres investigation. She claimed people say it’s the San Jose Police Officers’ Association — and asked if I would say whether that was true.
It took a minute for what was happening to sink in. A public official, whose salary is funded by taxpayers, asking a reporter to expose her sources — on the record. The city is using taxpayer dollars to uncover a journalist’s sources, investigate so-called “leaks” and stifle information about a potential criminal case.
I have never revealed a source in my career, and I told Camarena I wouldn’t do so now.
She said she understood and would let her bosses know. She could not say who directed her to make the phone call and ask what we both knew was a highly inappropriate question.
“I have high regard and respect for (journalists) and the news media,” Camarena said. “In my close to 30 years of working in public information, I have sought to be a source of truth so we may get critical news and lifesaving resources to the public in a timely manner. As part of an internal investigation, I was asked to inquire about the general source of the criminal investigation details provided to media. In retrospect, I should have sought clarity on the request. It is never my intent to compromise the relationship between a journalist and the source. I seek to learn from this experience.”
It’s hard to blame Camarena — she is a public official put in an impossible position. But what about the person who directed her to make the phone call? It’s stunning that officials in the highest positions of power at San Jose City Hall are more concerned about finding “leaks” than whether their elected official allegedly sexually abused minors.
A source told San José Spotlight that a city administrator attempted to question police detectives working on the Torres investigation in an attempt to find the leak.
Tom Saggau, a spokesperson for the police officers association, called the claims from the city unfounded and reckless. The officers would never impede or interfere with an ongoing investigation, he added.
“City management clearly have their priorities in the wrong order, instead of trying to identify whistleblowers who may have knowledge of alleged vile criminal acts they should be focused on protecting children by encouraging full and complete cooperation with the investigation,” Saggau said. “They should also immediately institute mandated reporter training for all city staff so that they immediately contact the police when they become aware of, or suspect, potential sexual abuse of minors.”
City Manager Jennifer Maguire said San Jose takes criminal investigations seriously.
“Details into a criminal investigation of a member of the San Jose City Council were made public by an undisclosed source, potentially compromising a criminal investigation,” Maguire said. “To protect the integrity of all criminal investigations, the city has launched an internal investigation into the potential source of the information. The investigation was moving quickly and, unfortunately, there was a miscommunication regarding the city’s inquiries. Freedom of the press is important to the city. We apologize regarding our communication error and are committed to learning from it.”
Make no mistake: This move by San Jose City Hall is intended to have a dangerous chilling effect. It’s intended to stifle the truth and silence whistleblowers.
A public agency is accountable to the people it serves — people who deserve to know the truth about Torres and the countless other things journalists investigate every day to hold power to account. What happened today is an abuse of power by a government agency and misappropriation of taxpayer money.
“A government has absolutely no business asking a newspaper to give up sources. Full stop,” David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition which protects the public’s right to know, said. “That is information that is 100% protected by reporter shield laws and the First Amendment. A public agency has no business asking the media to give up their sources.”
Loy said he’s never heard of a public agency asking journalists to expose their sources.
“It’s sending the wrong message to the public that this is an acceptable topic of conversation,” he said. “It’s not a position that any reporter or editor should be placed in to have to say no to that question.”
Mayor Matt Mahan’s office issued a statement acknowledging the administration’s mistake.
“There’s a reason why we have freedom of the press in this country,” said Tasha Dean, chief communications officer for Mahan and the city. “And part of that freedom includes maintaining the integrity of a journalist’s sources.”
As concerns mount over the city’s push to uncover confidential sources, Saggau encouraged anyone with information about the Torres case to contact SJPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit at 408-277-3214. He said the police union will help city employees who fear retaliation find legal counsel.
Contact Ramona Giwargis at [email protected] or follow @RamonaGiwargis on Twitter.
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