The below is provided as background to Billy Shields article in the Daily Business Review yesterday.



From: Billy Shields [mailto:BShields@alm.com]

Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:09 AM

To: David Ranck [S.A.O. address]

Subject: Call me when you get the chance


David,

I’m a reporter with the Daily Business Review here in Miami. I generally cover civil courts but there are occasions when I’ll follow other court stories when it speaks to how the court system and justice system functions.


I read an item about your recent dispute with the police and it sounds like something I should follow.


Please call me at your earliest convenience at 305-347-6649, and we can talk about this some.


Sincerely,


Billy Shields



Despite the tone of familiarity here, I had never met, nor heard of, Mr. Shields before this email. I did not repond to the email, nor did I call back.



Mr. Shields followed this up with, at least one, perhaps two phone calls* over the next few days. In the first he identified himself as a reporter and I did not take the call. In the other, my secretary told me that there was a Billy Shields calling for me, and when she asked for a case reference she told me that he replied, "That's what I'm trying to find out." Not remembering who Shields was, I took the call.



I told him that I would not talk about the case. He asked me if, as repercussion for the posting of the February 23, 2004 email, "your caseload has increased." I have no idea what, if anything, was behind that question, but I told him that it had not.



He then dropped the subject of the email and we talked generally, and pleasantly. He has some connection to Pittsburgh, where I went to college, and we talked about our mutual affection for the city. The call ended with Shields telling me that "If you ev



*I remember two, but I may be mistaken.