Fight over slain reporter's files going to Nevada high court

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge blocked Las Vegas police, prosecutors and defense attorneys Wednesday from accessing a slain investigative journalist’s cellphone and electronic devices over concerns about revealing the reporter’s confidential sources and notes.

Then she backed away from the case, citing an immediate appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

“I don’t think I have jurisdiction anymore,” Clark County District Judge Susan Johnson told attorneys for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, county prosecutors, defense attorneys, and lawyers representing the Las Vegas Review-Journal and dozens of media organizations. "Let’s see what the Supreme Court says.”

The judge pointed during a brief hearing to her restraining order, issued minutes earlier, and acknowledged the fast track taken on a question that all sides agree needs a state high court ruling.

Her order blocks immediate review by police of six devices that attorneys for the newspaper expect contain source names and notes compiled by reporter Jeff German before he was killed Sept. 2 in a knife attack outside his home.

Police and prosecutors want to comb the records for additional evidence that Robert “Rob” Telles, a former Democratic elected county official, fatally stabbed German in response to articles German wrote that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct.

Telles’ court-appointed public defenders want to learn whether other people had a motive to kill German.

The police department, the Clark County district attorney's office and Telles' defense lawyers jointly sought the appeal.

The newspaper, backed by organizations including The Associated Press and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, maintains that police should not have the devices at all. It argues that confidential...