Judge: Slain Reporter Sources Issue for High Court to Decide

LAS VEGAS (AP) A Nevada judge decided Wednesday not to punish Las Vegas police for taking an initial look at a slain investigative journalists cellphone after he was killed in September, and said it is up to the state Supreme Court to decide whether a thorough review by homicide detectives of the reporter's electronic devices would improperly expose confidential notes and sources.

Im inclined to deny the motion for sanctions because it would affect the criminal case adversely, Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt said.

The judge also rejected Las Vegas Review-Journal requests to name a third-party special master to review the material and order the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to pay what an attorney for the newspaper argued is hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and court costs racked up while arguing the issue.

Leavitt said she believed court orders not to disclose confidential material could be sufficient to prevent public disclosure of protected material in the murder case against Robert Rob Telles, a former Democratic elected county official accused of stabbing German to death outside Germans home on Sept. 2.