FREE SPEECH

Los Angeles Times Wins Legal Battle Over Report About Mafia-Linked Cop

Federal judge reversed his own order requiring newspaper to pull parts of an article.

A federal judge on Tuesday lifted an order requiring the Los Angeles Times to remove from publication part of an article about a former police detective accused of being in cahoots with local gangs. The order sparked fears of censorship when it was first handed down Saturday. U.S. District Judge John F. Walter reversed course on his own ruling Tuesday after the Times challenged it, saying he’d initially ordered the information be removed because he wasn’t sure it had been legally obtained. The newspaper had published details of a plea agreement between prosecutors and former Glendale Police Det. John Balian that revealed his alleged ties to the Mexican Mafia. That information was accidentally placed in a publicly accessible court database, meaning the newspaper had lawfully obtained it, Walter said Tuesday. The judge said he’d ordered the paper to pull the information over the weekend out of concerns for Balian’s safety, and while the order has now been lifted, he called on the Times to “use some restraint… in light of potential consequences.”