12:55 PM EST on Thursday, November 18, 2004

June 29, 2000 Frank E. Corrente, the top aide and chief fundraiser for then-Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., is indicted on corruption charges -- 11 months after three Providence tax officials were indicted in the case that the federal government dubbed Operation Plunder Dome.

Aug. 8, 2000 Senior U.S. Judge Ronald R. Lagueux enters a protective order prohibiting anyone from the prosecution or defense camps from disseminating any of the secret videotapes that had been made by the FBI as part of its investigation. Lagueux entered the order because a grand jury was still considering whether to bring further charges in the case and to ensure the defendants' right to a fair trial.

Feb. 1, 2001 Channel 10 airs a secret FBI videotape, which reporter Jim Taricani had obtained from a confidential source, showing Corrente taking a $1,000 bribe from informant Antonio Freitas, a Providence businessman who wanted to lease property he owned to the city.

April 2, 2001 A superseding indictment is handed up in the Corrente case, adding Cianci and three others as defendants.

May 31, 2001 Ernest C. Torres, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Providence, appoints Marc DeSisto as a special prosecutor to investigate who leaked the videotape to Taricani. The judge said the release of the tape "may constitute criminal contempt" because it violated Lagueux's protective order.

June 26, 2001 Torres fines and suspends for 30 days Richard W. Rose, the lead prosecutor in the Plunder Dome case, for showing a secret FBI surveillance tape of Corrente taking a cash bribe from Freitas.

April 17, 2002 The trial of Cianci, Corrente and two codefendants begins before Torres and a jury in U.S. District Court in Providence.

May 24, 2002 The government plays for jurors the videotape that Taricani aired showing Corrente accepting the $1,000 cash bribe from Freitas.

June 24, 2002 Jurors convict Cianci, Corrente and Richard E. Autiello on corruption charges.

Sept. 6, 2002 Cianci, Corrente and Autiello are all sentenced to prison.

Oct. 2, 2003 Judge Torres orders Taricani to reveal his source to DeSisto.

March 16, 2004 Torres finds Taricani in civil contempt and tells him he will have to pay a fine of $1,000 a day until he reveals his source for the Corrente videotape. The contempt finding and fines are stayed pending Taricani's appeal.

June 21, 2004 A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejects every argument made by Taricani's lawyers, upholding the civil contempt finding and the $1,000-a-day fine. They cite the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case of Branzburg v. Hayes, which rejected the contention that reporters have a First Amendment right to refuse to answer "relevant questions put to them in the course of a grand jury investigation or criminal trial."

Aug. 12, 2004 Taricani begins paying the $1,000-a-day fine, which his employer reimburses him for.

Sept. 29, 2004 DeSisto files papers with Torres asking him to increase the sanctions against Taricani, saying the reporter's $1,000-a-day fine hasn't been coercive enough.

Nov. 4, 2004 Torres tells Taricani that he is turning his civil contempt case into one of criminal contempt and warns him that unless he reveals his source within the next two weeks, he will go on trial Nov. 18 and, if convicted, will face up to six months in prison. The judge suspends the $1,000-a-day fine Taricani has been paying, saying it is clear that the fine alone won't induce Taricani to give up his source.

-- TRACY BRETON

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this chronology incorrectly gave the date of Frank E. Corrente's indictment.