County prosecutor overreaches at JMU

Journalism students at James Madison University learned a hard lesson last week: Politicians will abuse their authority if they think they can get away with it.

Marsha Garst is the Rockingham County commonwealth's attorney. Armed with a search warrant and accompanied by officers, Garst went to the offices of The Breeze and demanded that the JMU student newspaper release unpublished photos of a party that turned violent and involved riot police.

"She said if you don't release all of them, we are prepared to take everything out of this office - all the computers, the cameras, documents, everything," Katie Thisdell, editor of The Breeze, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Garst, of course, was so aggressive because she thought that the students would be intimidated and wouldn't fight back. She was right, and police took digital copies of the images.

Newspapers, as a matter of course, don't share unedited photos and notes with authorities. A news staff is not an arm of the law; it is supposed to be a neutral observer. Without that implied neutrality, many sources would clam up.

It is not unheard of for a newspaper to provide photos or other information when ordered or asked to, but it is rare for law enforcement to simply seize them, let alone threaten to shut a newspaper down to get what it wants.

Unless, of course, a commonwealth's attorney decides her end justifies any means necessary.

"To intimidate student journalists with a massive show of force and with no time to consult with legal counsel is grossly improper," Frank D. LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, told the Times-Dispatch.

LoMonte is right. Garst was wrong.

If there's any justice left in Rockingham County, where Garst is the law, she will have to answer for her transgressions before a judge.