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Reporter involved in spat is witness
By ALISA ULFERTS
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 12, 2001
TALLAHASSEE -- Seven months have passed since a spat between two journalists covering the presidential recount sent one to the hospital and the other to jail.
Now one of them is making news again, but this time as a witness to history, not a participant.
Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith was one of 10 journalists picked by lottery to witness Monday's federal execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Smith also was one of hundreds of journalists who flooded Tallahassee in November to cover the disputed election.
He was arrested then and charged with aggravated battery with a motor vehicle, a felony, after police said he hit another reporter who was reserving a parking spot for her camera crew. The charge later was reduced to a misdemeanor.
The reporter, Maureen Walsh of Tallahassee, is a freelance journalist who works for Bay News 9, a cable channel based in Pinellas Park. Walsh went to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital with bruised knees and legs, police said. She declined to comment Monday. Smith, 37, was taken to the Leon County Jail and released on $10,000 bail, with instructions to stay away from Walsh, according to the court file.
A spokeswoman for the Fox News Channel stressed that the charge is a misdemeanor and that the case is ongoing. Smith was on the air much of Monday and was unavailable. A hearing is scheduled for June 21.
Smith, whose full name is David Shepard Smith, began his career at an NBC affiliate in Panama City, according to a biography on the Fox News Channel Web site. In addition to his daily broadcast, Smith hosts The Fox Report with Shepard Smith. The biography said Smith is a senior correspondent who once worked as a reporter for A Current Affair.
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