WAG - Giving credit and thanks
Here’s a belated follow up to Wednesday’s teaser.
The documents I hurriedly retrieved Wednesday, which triggered the earlier mentioned bombshell at the daily planning meeting, pertained to the Valencia-Rios case.
As documented earlier, the main “person of interest” in the investigation of a MU student’s death is a Columbia cop.
Tuesday we reported a special outside prosecutor was being named in the case. The next day, I was asked to go down to the Boone County Courthouse to see what the official request entailed.
We briefly speculated that it could just be a formal “we, the previously mentioned aforesigned etc, request that a future office, to be determined, be named to take over the case which currently possesses many conflicts of interest, yada yada yada.” It wasn’t expected, but we hoped the application might have listed breakdown of reasons why they wanted an outside attorney. This tied in directly to the fact the police department refused to deem the officer a “suspect” for fear of giving a perception of guiltiness, despite the fact that wasn’t common conduct in other cases (where one of their own was a potential culprit).
I was selected, I believe, due to my advanced reporting level, my availability and my suspected history with information requests. While I am in 307, not 306, and had the time to answer my editors’ call, I have never had to worry about a “Freedom of Information” request. Sunshine laws make it possible to get access to government documents, though sometimes you have to give formal requests to do so. While other people I know seem to have to file such petitions every other story they write, I have yet to face that position.
Though conflict wasn’t expected, I was told to go in with a FOI – just in case.
Excited and freaked, I went back to the computer stations to double check the judge’s office I needed to go to and get a crash course on FOI requests from a knowledgeable friend. We found the right site, though I found the Missourian printers weren’t working. I hastily copied down the crucial lines on notebook paper, I figured it would be sneered at but would still do the job in a pinch, and booked it out of the newsroom.
I made it to the courthouse. Going through security, I realized I had two pocketknives left in my backpack from working with tool craft in Royal Rangers. Actually, the security guard only noticed my big buck knife until I said I probably had another in there.
“Oh yeah,” he said restudying the x-rayed contents of my backpack. “There’s one more.”
After turning in my other knife, I went to the clerk’s office and found the document. I read, re-read, and triple read what I had. Wow.
I asked for a copy and got another thrill when I heard one of the clerks remark, we’d better make several copies. This is going to be a popular piece of paper. That meant, I was the first to have the documents and the Columbia Tribune was behind us.
I kicked in a dollar for copies (it only cost 50 cents, and I probably could have gotten if for free if I pressed – for the good of the public, but I said it would probably cover the cost of the Tribune reporter who followed me).
Making a fast dash back to the Missourian, it helped that I was cruising downhill and pepped up on “breaking news adrenaline” as it was, I mentally reviewed what I had. Even upon reaching Lee Hills Hall, where the reporters are housed, I was still double checking the wording as I hurried up the stairs.
I found the budget meeting was still going on upon my return. I walked up to one of the editors that sent me on this wild dash and pointed at a certain line. It was the proverbial “hot of the presses” (well, copier) moment. The editor read the paragraph that said the first reason why an outside prosecuting attorney was requested was the fact that they expected to serve a warrant to the police officer to arrest him for murder.
Boom, and we were off like a shot.
It was the journalistic highlight of the week. I did a victory jig that afternoon when I learned the Trib didn’t catch the story on their cycle (they publish around 1 p.m. and I picked up the request around 11:15 a.m.).
The next day when the story ran, I was even further thrilled to be cited at the bottom for helping with the article.
As the song says, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I wasn’t expecting a “contributed to” credit. Several people may help compile information for a story, but their names usually won’t appear unless they helped write a portion of the story. There are exceptions of course, like when you help bring a big puzzle piece to the board or are friends with the people writing the main part of the story. Andrew did a lot more work than I did and Sarah, well, she’s the toast of the newsroom.
Even in the first draft of the story for the online edition that went out Wednesday night, I wasn’t included. I was simply the messenger boy: one who was trusted enough to get the goods for the sake of others. I guess along with my attitude toward teamwork, it didn't hurt that I know and have worked with these reporters well on other articles.
It was a cool day. I have a killer clip, a cool story, and a confirmed concern that Boone County Courthouse security isn’t what it ought to be. No bad for a quick bike ride.
'One_knife_Two_knives_No_big_deal'
