September 14, 2006
By HARRY COVERT
The best beats for any reporter are police and courts, politics and sports. You can cover the good, the bad and the good again. When you age a bit you become a columnist and an expert on all things.
Recently, we read of the Maryland high school football player convicted of major felonies but not jailed. His punishment in part was to change high schools. He was also named captain of the new football team. Because he’s a good quarterback he’s playing regularly. He escaped any jail time.
I know of a Virginia boy, an all state caliber football end. He was fleet of foot and could catch passes to the envy of most players. He was headed to a major Atlantic Coast Conference university football program with a full academic scholarship and a pro football career well in his sights.
He also had a side job. After daily football practices and weekly Friday night games, our Virginia athlete began to break into homes and steal. His little venture went undetected for almost a year. At the same time he was courted by major college and university football teams, toasted at banquets and named to state all-star teams. His parents were proud of his athletic prowess.
So it happened. A nosey neighbor got suspicious. She wondered about this young 6-foot-6 lad who always seemed to be moving in. She called the police. After a few weeks of surveillance, the cops entered the apartment and found a cache of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen radio and television sets, stereos, rings, necklaces and bracelets. The young athlete had learned the art of fencing stolen goods. He was doing pretty well for himself dollar-wise.
On one weekend, the athlete was named one of the state’s best players. On Monday, still in high school, he was charged with 38 counts of burglary, breaking and entering, grand larceny and attempting to escape from police. He was later convicted on most of these charges and sentenced to 20-plus years in the Virginia penitentiary. No suspended time either. He didn’t get a chance to play college football. He shouldn’t have. It was a good story.
Now the continued story of Judy Miller. She is the celebrated former reporter of The New York Times who spent 85 days last year in the Alexandria Jail. She had refused to reveal her source in a story she didn’t write involving the outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. In the end, Judy was forced to leave The Times earlier this year. I admire her because she stood on journalistic ethics. She earned the praise of some of her colleagues but many turned against her because of their own political agenda to smear the current presidential administration.
The point here is simple: Judy Miller had professional character and went to jail on that principle. We know now it wasn’t even necessary. The special federal prosecutor was aware from the beginning who leaked the information. No one in the media seems upset at the miscarriage of justice. Against Judy, Karl Rove, the President’s man, or I. Lewis Libby, the Veep’s man, who’s been indicted. But that’s a tale for another day.
I visited Judy several times in the Alexandria Jail. She was always smiling wearing her green jail jumpsuit, in good spirits and did her jobs. She first worked in the jail kitchen and then in the library. She was a model prisoner and well-liked on the second floor, not far from the infamous Zacarias Moussaoui of terrorist fame in the 9/11 attack.
Ms. Miller kept a daily journal of incarcerated life on Mill Road, Alexandria. She found time to organize the jail’s library, itemizing every book by category and computerizing every book for use by inmates and staff. She took time to organize the books by reading levels. Through her efforts, The New York Times donated a computer, complete with program, and hundreds of books for the Alexandria Jail.
It sure seems obvious that though she was shabbily treated by her Times’ colleagues and the special prosecutor, she stood perfectly straight on principle. Refreshing. Certainly she’s exonerated for any misconduct. It is shameful that this Pulitzer Prize winning reporter was jailed. I hope she gets a book out of the ordeal. Maybe the special prosecutor will be forced to resign, this man of allegedly high moral character, who seems to have played fast and loose with the law and other people’s lives.
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