BY JOHN NOLAN
The Associated Press
The former star reporter accused by The Cincinnati Enquirer of botching its report on Chiquita's business practices went to court Wednesday to tell a judge and the media that he didn't want to talk.
"No comment. No comment," Michael Gallagher repeated over and over, calmly at first in a courtroom seat, then some more when he tried to brush past the pack of reporters and photographers dogging him down a courtroom hall.
Mr. Gallagher and his lawyers appeared in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to request that he not be compelled to testify before a grand jury about accusations he raided Chiquita Brands International Inc.'s voice mail system.
A judge postponed a hearing on that request until July 22 and ordered that it be held in private. Judge Norbert Nadel also sealed all records in the case, citing the secrecy normally accorded to a grand jury's work.
A special prosecutor is guiding the grand jury investigation into whether property, including confidential voice mail messages, was stolen from Cincinnati-based Chiquita. The company alleges that Mr. Gallagher used the voice-mail information to produce highly critical stories published by the Enquirer on May 3 and renounced by the newspaper in a front-page apology on June 28.
The newspaper has fired Mr. Gallagher, saying it believed he may have stolen proprietary information from Chiquita and lied to his editors about it. The Enquirer paid Chiquita more than $10 million to settle the company's claims -- even though Chiquita had not sued the Enquirer.
Mr. Gallagher was not party to the settlement and was sued by Chiquita last week, in addition to being subpoenaed by the special prosecutor.
His lawyers had asked another county judge, John O'Connor, to hear the request Wednesday to throw out the subpoena. Judge O'Connor said Judge Nadel, as administrative presiding judge, asserted a right to take over the case.
Judge Nadel assigned himself another high profile case in May -- Hamilton County's pending prosecution of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt on charges Mr. Flynt violated obscenity laws by selling explicit sex videotapes. Mr. Flynt's lawyers objected and Judge Nadel reluctantly had that case randomly assigned to another judge. Chiquita's lawsuit accused Mr. Gallagher of posing questions to company representatives, then eavesdropping on the voice mail of Chiquita lawyers and executives as they prepared their responses. Mr. Gallagher, 40, has consistently declined to comment.
His lawyer, Patrick Hanley, and special prosecutor Perry Ancona also would not answer media questions Wednesday.
The lawsuit complained that Mr. Gallagher violated company executives' personal privacy and their lawyer-client confidentiality, obtaining more than 2,000 voice mail messages.
Chiquita also alleged that Mr. Gallagher passed confidential information on to the company's critics and damaged its business reputation.
