TV Journalist Accused of Leaking Documents to CNET Reporter

A Los Angeles broadcast journalist has been accused of giving confidential court documents in a case involving pirated video on YouTube to CNET reporter Greg Sandoval.

Caroline McCarthy of CNET reports, “Schapiro, an external counsel for YouTube and its parent company Google, ran through a list of telephone calls and e-mails from last fall that he says provide evidence of communication with Sandoval. When Tur finally turned over his computer to a forensics team, Schapiro said, its hard drive had been wiped clean in a 7-pass wipe, an action that Tur said was unrelated as the computer was having its system restored so that it could be given to his daughter.

“‘If all of these things are coincidence, then Bob Tur is the unluckiest man in the world,’ Schapiro related to Judge Louis Stanton. ‘The circumstantial evidence in this case and the inferences to be drawn from it are overwhelming.’

“Stanton said that he would like to see the fresh dispute go in front of a jury as a separate trial, which he expects will be resolved in a ’short and simple’ manner, but that ‘it’s got to be dealt with.’”

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