TV & VIDEO - June 30, 1987

A Florida judge has ordered NBC to turn over videotapes and outtakes of a nationally broadcast interview to a murder suspect. Michael Raymond, an FBI informant now awaiting trial in a 12-year-old murder case, subpoenaed NBC’s videotaped interviews with his chief accuser and others. NBC contended that the material was protected under the constitutional guarantee of a free press, but defense attorney Willaim Aronwald argued that the court had to balance the First Amendment privilege against a defendant’s constitutional right to a fair trial. Broward Circuit Judge Mark Polen agreed with Aronwald, the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel reported, and ordered the network to turn over the videotapes and outtakes, which are taped material that was not broadcast. No one at NBC’s headquarters in New York City could say immediately whether the network would appeal.