Detroit journalist’s conviction viewed as political retaliation for reporting

Wayne County prosecutor's office accused of misconduct. 'How can you have a trooper admit to erasing evidence? To me the trial should have stopped then.'

By Eartha Jane Melzer / Michigan Messenger


The conviction of a Detroit reporter on felony police obstruction charges last week has prompted warnings about a chilling of press freedom as well as calls for a federal investigation of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office.

Diane Bukowski, 60, a reporter for the African American-owned weekly Michigan Citizen, was arrested Nov. 4 as she documented the scene of a police chase and crash that killed two people on Detroit’s northeast side. She now faces a possible sentence of up to four years in prison.

During the week-long jury trial before Judge Michael Hathaway in Wayne County Circuit Court last week, assistant prosecutor Thomas Trzcinski and troopers involved at the scene of the crash testified that Bukowski crossed a yellow plastic police tape and stood in a pool of blood as she lifted a tarp to photograph a dismembered corpse.

A state trooper, Eric Byerly, testified that he seized Bukowski’s camera and erased photos. Fifteen state troopers testified for the prosecution. Only three witnesses testified for the defense after Judge Hathaway partially allowed a motion by the prosecution to limit discussion about the fact that Bukowski was working as a reporter at the time of her arrest.

Bukowski denies that she ever crossed a police line and said she will appeal her conviction and will file a complaint against the police for destroying evidence.

She said that the case against her is a political attack in response to her reporting. Bukowsi said that police who testified against her committed perjury during the trial and that the prosecutor’s office suborned that perjury. She pointed out that a member of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office has been charged with perjury for lying under oath during another recent trial. In a statement (video here) delivered shortly after her conviction she called for an investigation of the Wayne County prosecutor’s handling of her case.

“I could not believe that they convicted her,” said Michigan Citizen Editor Teresa Kelley, who observed the trial. “One trooper said there was a nine foot gap in the tape — the Channel 2 film showed she was on the grass.”