Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.19.2004 12:56

1999. State police boss returns reporter's seized notebook

Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi was chatting with members of a Cranston church congregation when state trooper Timothy Sanzi tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to step outside. He accused her of sneaking into the church. He wanted her name. He wanted her boss's name. And he wanted her notebook. She refused. Sanzi told her if she did not cooperate, she would be arrested. Then he seized her notebook.

Journal Executive Editor Joel P. Rawson called it a "troubling" violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press. "To have someone come and confiscate our notes is very frightening because we are not a closed society, but there are a lot of people who think they can operate like it is, and that scares me."

It was Nov. 4, 1999, four days after EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean south of Nantucket, carrying 217 people to their deaths. Although the flight did not take off from Rhode Island, was not heading to Rhode Island and did not crash in Rhode Island, EgyptAir became a Rhode Island story. The Ocean State had the dock facilities and warehouse space at Quonset Point for the crash investigation. Those aboard Flight 990 received Rhode Island death certificates.

Fassihi, an American-born Muslim with Iranian parents, dressed in black and wore a head scarf to the Coptic church that day as a courtesy to the other women in the church, who also wore scarves.

Trooper Sanzi saw it as a disguise to sneak into the closed service, which was videotaped by CNN and photographed by the Associated Press.

Fassihi said the priest had told her the service was public and she could attend. The priest denied speaking with her.

That afternoon, the superintendent of the state police, Col. Edmond S. Culhane Jr., personally returned Fassihi's notebook to Rawson.

It was the second time Fassihi had had a run-in with the police. As a reporter with the BBC, she had also had been arrested by the totalitarian government in Iran.