Fight over dead reporter’s sources stalls before Vegas judge

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas judge declined to consider blocking government access to a slain investigative journalist’s sources and unpublished work. The judge said Wednesday she didn’t have jurisdiction to consider the question. But a lawyer heading efforts by Nevada’s largest newspaper, 43 media organizations and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press promised to ask a state court to prevent police and prosecutors from accessing the dead reporter’s electronic devices. The Las Vegas Review-Journal maintains that police never should have seized reporter Jeff German’s cellphone, computers and hard drive from his home. The newspaper’s editor says that killing a journalist should not result in opening the journalist’s confidential contacts for government inspection.