South Dakota Media Club

Rapid City Circuit Judge John Delaney has denied a media request for expanded electronic coverage in the upcoming Aug. 23 sentencing of Amanda Kaur, who pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the 2010 shooting death of her husband.

The request for video and still camera coverage, along with audio recording, was made by News Director Jack Caudill of KEVN-TV in Rapid City. The denial letter said the lawyers and the judge did not agree with camera coverage, and Judge Delaney acting on his own had denied audio coverage.

Further, the letter from 7th Circuit Court Administrator Jeff Krattenmaker said the judge will not allow recording devices or laptops in the courtroom during the sentencing, and all mobile phones must be turned off. Many judges in South Dakota do permit reporters to use laptops for taking notes during trials and hearings, and Chief Justice David Gilbertson has said he can see no reason to deny that use.

Kaur had been charged with murder in the November 2010 shooting death of her husband Ira Kaur in the couple’s New Underwood home. As part of the plea agreement prosecutors agreed to cap their sentence request at 65 years in prison, but Judge Delaney is not bound by that agreement.

By Zach Nelson, news director, Performance Radio, KOKK, Huron:

On August 2nd 2011 at 11:30 AM a change of plea hearing was held in the case of Wessington Springs South Dakota School Superintendent Lance Witte. He agreed to plead guilty to driving with a revoked license in exchange for having the conviction withheld from his record.

When first learning of a trial date for the case, I made a standard (for me anyway) request of expanded coverage of the State V. Witte trial to the Third Judicial Circuit (Jerauld County).

I was then informed by e-mail from Judge David Gienapp that a plea had been reached and that the hearing was likely going to be done over Interactive Television (I-TV) so the parties would not have to drive to Wessington Springs for the court hearing. Judge Geinapp did allow my request but required me to be present with him when recording the hearing. He was stationed in Brookings and the attorneys were in Mitchell, so I made a trip to Brookings.

My experience with an I-TV set-up was very simple. You can not hook up directly to the system as any outlets are hard to find. I found the placing of a recorder near the speaker of the televison not only picked up good sound from whoever was off-site but from the judge as well. I used two recorders just to be safe with one pointed at the judge and the other at the TV monitor. From my experience with an I-TV set up, I would suggest placing a recorder with the mic facing away from the TV and toward the judge for the following reasons.

Most likely the judge will be facing the camera and the local monitor, which means the judge’s voice will be projecting toward the recorder. With the mic facing away from the TV speaker but still close to the TV you will be able to pick up good audio.

These are just some thoughts if you find yourself with a granted request but the court deciding to use the Interactive TV system. Also it’s almost easier because you don’t have to run wires to connect to a sound system, and the I-TV rooms are generally small enough that the sound quality can be used without problems.

You can listen to the sound bites at the KOKK website: http://bit.ly/pS2Tzk.

*Note: The following was contributed by Zach Nelson, news director for Performance Radio in Huron, who requested expanded coverage for the July 1 closing arguments in the Edwin Thompson trial.

I have been asked to share a summary with my dealings regarding the first approved request for expanded coverage of trial court proceedings in South Dakota. My situation was quite different in that I was trying to cover two trials in two towns at the same time. I was quite fortunate in that one trial was pleaded out at the last minute.

I started by making a written request. And by written I mean typed out and mailed through the post office. I did not engage in e-mail correspondence until the contact had been established. In State V. Kruger (Kingsbury County) I received a written response twice from Judge David Gienapp who was hearing the case. The first letter informed me that my still photo request was denied. The second was to inform me that Judge Gienapp would allow audio only, per rules adopted July 1st.

I was urged to contact Dexter Gronseth, KELO-TV assignment editior and South Dakota Supreme Court media coordinator. The media pooling was originally going to take place in DeSmet, however since that trial did not happen due to the plea, the pool was eventually moved to Huron for State V. Thompson (Beadle County).

Sitting in the final motions hearing before Thompson, I was present when the issue of expanded coverage was brought before the court during the hearing. I witnessed both the defense and prosecution say they would be fine with audio and stills. I was informed via e-mail by Judge Gienapp that Kruger would not go to trial. I immediately called the KELO team and told them that Kruger got pleaded out but if they wanted to come to Huron, Thompson was still on the table. All of this was contingent on the Thompson case making it to Friday (July 1, the day the new rule went into effect allowing expanded coverage.)

Prior to the Kruger plea I went to a local audio shop and purchased a 50-foot audio cable with a 1/8 inch mini-plug on one end and a modified end with an “RCA Style” A/V plug. Before I knew I would have KELO in Huron with me I was making provisions to run that single audio cable to a location in the front pew where I would have quick access for disconnecting the audio from the recorder if directed to by the judge.

We used my 50-foot cable to go from the speaker amplifier and wireless microphone interface to the pooling equipment. My 50-foot cable reached just beyond a side door on the court room. KELO did not have a fitting to connect their XLR fittings to my mini-plug so Dexter called back to Sioux Falls and had an engineer fashion a cable to connect my cable with his. We proceeded to tape down any cables that could have been a tripping hazard.

While finishing the audio set-up Judge Jon Erickson asked why a video camera was not requested. I explained how on the radio, video didn’t matter to me. He said a camera would be fine with him if the lawyers agreed, which they did. A camera was then set up in a location so as to not flim jurors.

One issue we found is that volume of the amplifier needed to be turned nearly all the way up. That also increased the volume coming from the courtroom speaker. It caused feedback issues when lawyers would get to close to the ceiling speaker if they moved around a lot. As far as effort, I assisted Dexter and his team as much as I could because they had the equipment to make it all happen.

Otherwise short of spending about 40 bucks on that 50-foot cable it was a fairly easy procedure. I was able to connect our cell phone remote equipment into the mult box and send the sound back to the station. From the radio side of things we set up back at the station to use an air studio with streaming capacity that we don’t use often so as to not interfere with other stations, then had the announcer on KIJV put up the streaming feed instead of a live feed off the phone to the air board.

One problem this caused was not being able to hear on-air programming prior to going live. I did not have direct access to a monitor, so there were some segments of dead air while waiting for things to start because I couldn’t see where they were at. Otherwise I think things worked well and sounded good. You do lose something on the radio side when you have to crank sound up so much but I had people tell me the radio thing sounded good.

Closing thoughts…
–Make your requests to include everything! KELO is the only place that seems to take an interest in having the equipment to properly pool mulitple media outlets, so if they are gonna help you set up pooling, do them a favor and at least TRY to get video. I will include video in all of my future requests. REMEMBER if they don’t grant it you still have audio.

–I would suggest it become a “gentlemen’s agreement” the organization who makes the request and gets approved should be the organization that sets up and coordinates media pool set-up. For example. I made the request for the Thompson trial. I contacted KELO to help. Other outlets should contact, in this example me. If say station WXYZ makes a request and it’s approved and you want a piece of the action, call WXYZ, not KELO, not me and most certainly not THE COURTS. Once a case is open to the media it’s up to the media to work together. The courts don’t want to hear from us once access is granted. The only contact made to the courts, in my estimation, should be to find out who is doing the pooling. Let the media have the headache, not the courts.

–Make your request as early as possible, this will give you time, if it’s granted, to work through any sound issues. It will or at least should eliminate any last minute scrambling.

–DON’T send your request to anyone other than the Media Coordinator for the Circuit you are in (*Note: This is the court administrator in each circuit, listed on the UJS web page.) Don’t go shipping off requests to the individual parties. One piece of paper is easier to track than 100, not to mention the likelihood of upsetting the court players you need to make the request happen. In other words “Don’t piss off the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney.”

I am far from an expert but I HAVE been through this rodeo before and I am willing to assist any media organization that wishes to obtain expanded coverage of a trial.

Sincerely
　
Zach Nelson
News Director
Performance Radio, Huron SD
Phone 1-605-352-1933
Cell 1-605-350-2038
Fax 1-605-352-0911

Information from KELO-TV
Published: July 1, 2011

HURON, SD – A Beadle County jury has found a man guilty but mentally ill in a Huron murder trial. And for the first time in South Dakota, the public was able to watch as the verdict was read.

Edwin Thompson was on trial for second-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Ryan Treadway. Thompson stomped on Treadway during a fight in 2009, causing the injuries that led to Treadway’s death.

A new law that went into effect on Friday (July 1, 2011) allows expanded media coverage of court cases. Zach Nelson, news director for Performance Radio of Huron, made the initial request for an audio feed and the historic opportunity to take still pictures at this trial. Circuit Judge Jon Erickson granted that request and on Thursday afternoon, he and the attorneys involved decided to allow a video camera in the courtroom as well. The attorney for the defense was Ron Volesky of Huron. The prosecutor was Beadle County State’s Attorney Michael Moore.

The expanded media coverage came on the last day of the trial when lawyers made their closing arguments and the jury delivered its verdict.

KELO served as pool for audio and video. Associated Press freelancer Doug Dreyer took still photos for the media pool.

Kruger Pleads Guilty To Threat Charges
By Zach Nelson
Melissa Kruger, 18, of DeSmet, entered a guilty plea this week to two Class 1 misdemeanors of making a threat through Facebook. Kruger originally faced a felony charge of making terroristic threats along with the misdemeanor charges. The felony charge was dropped in a plea bargain. Kruger was arrested Jan. 18 after authorities learned she made numerous threats through Facebook, including bringing a gun to school and harming students. Each misdemeanor count carries a maximum of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Sentencing is set for Aug. 3. Circuit Judge David Gienapp released Kruger from house arrest pending the sentencing, but he continued to ban her from using Facebook.

Just click on “Contact Us” on the right-hand side of this page and send us a note about what you did. What case do you want to cover? Who is the judge, the defense lawyer, the prosecuting lawyer? When did you apply? What did your letter say?

Then follow up with the response of the court. What was allowed and what was denied?

If we can make an entry for each application we’ll be able to track how often expanded coverage is requested, how often it is allowed, and we’ll have an idea of which judges have approved expanded coverage for which cases.

In addition we all can go to school on the experience of others. We can learn how to write a request letter, what information is important, etc.

Finally, we’d love to hear how the arrangement worked. What kind of equipment was used for sound — for photos — for video? How was it shared among all the media? What went right and what went wrong?

Looking forward to hearing from you as we get closer to July 1, 2011.

Two judges have approved media requests for expanded coverage of upcoming trials under new rules that take effect July 1. Judge David Gienapp approved the use of audio recording on the third and final day of the Melissa Kruger trial in DeSmet. And Judge Jon Erickson approved both a still camera and audio recording for the Edwin Thompson trial in Huron.

Zach Nelson, news director at Performance Radio in Huron, made the applications in both cases. Once expanded coverage is approved the media is expected to form a pool and share the audio and photos amongst themselves.

Only one photographer and one set of recording equipment will be allowed inside the courtroom. Media will have to decide among themselves who will take the pictures, who will collect the sound, and how they will share the photos and sound with all the other media wanting that coverage.

The Kruger trial is scheduled for three days, June 29-July 1. Audio recording would only be allowed if the trial continues into the third day, July 1, which is the day the new rule takes effect. Kruger is a high school student from De Smet accused of making terroristic threats on Facebook. Performance Radio requested both audio and still camera coverage of the Kruger trial, but only the request for audio was granted.

Camera coverage can only be allowed if the judge and the attorneys for both sides agree to permit it. In the Kruger trial, Judge Gienapp said there was no agreement on cameras, but he didn’t say which way he and the attorneys voted. Gienapp did approve audio coverage, which a judge can do without consent of the attorneys.

Thompson is scheduled for trial June 27 on a charge of second-degree murder in the November 2009 death of Ryan Treadway in Huron. If that trial lasts until July 1, still photos and audio recording will be permitted in the courtroom at that time. Judge Jon Erickson of Huron, defense counsel Ron Volesky and Beadle County Deputy State’s Attorney Jeff Banks all agreed to allow the expanded coverage.

Judge David Gienapp says he won’t allow a camera to be used in covering the three-day trial of Melissa Kruger, who is charged with making threatening posts on Facebook. The trial is set to begin June 29 in DeSmet. The new rule allowing expanded media coverage of trial courts goes into effect July 1.

Gienapp said the request for camera coverage was denied because all parties did not consent as required under the new rule. The judge said he will respond later on whether the media will be allowed to capture audio of the trial starting on July 1. Audio recording can be permitted by the judge without agreement by the attorneys in the case.

The request for expanded coverage was made by News Director Zach Nelson of Performance Radio in Huron. Here is the letter Nelson received from Gienapp this week:

June 14, 2011

Zachary F. Nelson
Performance Radio
1726 Dakota Avenue South
Huron, SD 57350

Re: State v. Kruger; Kingsbury County

Dear Mr. Nelson:

This letter is in respoose to your letter to Anthony Benning relating to your request for utilization of a still camera and audio recording during the State v Melissa Kruger trial in DeSmet. As correctly referenced in your letter this request would only be effective on July 1, 2011, and not during the first two days of trial on June 29th and June 30th.

The request was taken up with counsel for the respective parties, on the record, during hearings held in DeSmet, South Dakota, on this day. The Court will not allow a still camera since all parties did not consent as required by Supreme Court Rule 10-09-2-(d).

The jurisdiction relating to the audio is in the sole discretion of the Court and the Court will respond to you at least one week prior to June 28th relating to that portion of your request,

Sincerely yours,
David R. Gienapp
Circuit Court Judge
Third Judicial Circuit