The editor-in-chief of the Fresno City College newspaper, The Rampage, was served a subpoena at court proceedings for former FCC instructor Brian Calhoun.
The subpoena orders Troy Pope, who is in his second semester as editor-in-chief, to appear in court on Tuesday Oct. 1, the second day of the battery trial against Calhoun.
Calhoun is accused of attacking FCC student Kevynn Gomez in the Old Administration Building of FCC on March, 22 2013. The altercation caused Calhoun to lose his job as instructor.
Pope had covered news of the events leading up to the trial against Calhoun. He has written multiple stories about the altercation and the aftermath, including articles about Calhoun losing his job.
The subpoena papers were served by local private investigator David Schiavon while Pope was awaiting a hearing against Calhoun to begin on Wednesday afternoon.
Schiavon walked up to the bench where Pope was sitting in the courtroom, handed him the papers and said, “You’ve been served Mr. Pope.”
Before Schiavon walked away, he stated that he was working for Calhoun’s attorney, Roger Nuttall. Neither Nuttall nor Schiavon could be reached for comment.
Schiavon previously attempted to serve Pope with papers on Sept. 19 at the Rampage office at FCC, but Pope was not in the office that day.
Pope discussed the incident with his lawyer and knew that he would be served with the subpoena eventually.
“When [Schiavon] served me the court documents, I knew they were coming,” Pope said.
“I knew the best thing I could do was take the court documents and look him in the eye.”
The subpoena orders Pope to appear in the courtroom, but the document does not specify whether he will have to testify.
Paul Boylan, attorney with the Student Press Law Center, advocates for student First Amendment rights, said that because Pope knows and works with Gomez, he may be called in to be a character witness at the trial. Boylan also said that Pope may also be asked about sources for his stories about the Calhoun incident.
Boylan said that the Rampage editor is covered by the “California Shield Law” which protects journalists from revealing their sources and that Pope can answer whatever questions he may be asked in court but is in “no way required to answer questions about his newsgathering.”
Boylan called the subpoena “very interesting,” and said this was the first time he had seen a student journalist being subpoenaed in his time practicing law.
This situation is also new to Pope.
“I have no idea. This is the first time I’ve ever been subpoenaed,” he said. “This is the first story I’ve ever worked on in two years that has ever gone into a courtroom.”
