Judge Deborah Batts
Florentine Films’ documentary “The Central Park Five” (Film) reported on the five men convicted of participating in the 1989 rape of the “Central Park Jogger.” Defendants’ Oct. 2, 2012, amended subpoena sought production of “outtakes” of audio or video recorded interviews collected during the making of the Film. Upon defendants’ objections, district court reviewed, de novo, a magistrate judge’s March 5, 2013, recommendation that Florentine Films’ motion to quash the subpoena be granted. Adopting, and modifying, the magistrate judge’s report, the court granted Florentine Films’ motion to quash. It found the reporter’s privilege applicable to the subpoenaed information. Discussing the test for the production of nonconfidential materials established by the Second Circuit in Gonzales v. Nat’l Broad., district court concluded that despite showing a particularized need for the outtakes, unlike the plaintiffs in Sokolow v. Palestine Liberation Org., the defendants failed to meet the test’s first prong requiring a showing that the materials “are ‘of likely relevance to a significant issue in the case.’” Nor did defendants meet Gonzales’ second prong. The information sought by defendants was readily obtainable from other available sources.
