Daily Press, February 15, 2007
By Matt Durkee

Schoolteacher Liz Wolf-Spada was on vacation in Hawaii when she received a startling phone call from her son, Josh Wolf, in San Francisco.

"What should I do? The FBI's at my door."

Wolf went out and got a lawyer. Six months later, the FBI was back, this time holding a grand jury subpoena, but Josh Wolf refused to comply.

Now Wolf is in federal prison and has been for 178 days today. It's the longest time ever spent in prison for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury, and the calendar keeps turning.

The federal prosecutors say their interest in the case concerns damage done to a San Francisco Police Department cruiser during anti-G-8 street protests in 2005. Anarchists vandalized the car and an of ficer suf fered a f r a c t u re d skull after bei n g s t r u ck . Because the car was purchased with federal funds, the case is a federal one.

The identity of the assailants could be on Wolf's tape. He filmed some of the attack and sold portions of his recording to local news organizations. Other sections were displayed on Wolf's Web site.

But Wolf, who grew up in Wrightwood, sees himself as a journalist who would be compromising his integrity by violating confidentiality were he to cooperate with the grand jury.

It's a conflict that sears the heart of his mother, Wolf-Spada, a Wrightwood resident and third-grade teacher in Phelan.

"I'm teaching my students there's a free press, but there is no free press. But I am optimistic that there will be one."

Her life, she says, is like having a full-time and a part-time job.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm handling things fine, and other things — the slightest things — set me off, and I realize I'm trying to keep up this calm exterior when I am in fact a volcano. And teaching keeps me sane because it's the normal part of my life."

On breaks and after school she is checking her calls and emails to get the latest update on efforts to free her son. Monthly, she travels to see him in prison.

This month she also made two trips across the country. At the first, the National Conference on Media Reform, she spoke to 1,000 journalists about her son's imprisonment. Many of them were "horrified" by her son's story.

Last week, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to get support for freeing her son and to lend support to a federal shield law for journalists. Many states, including California, have journalist shield laws, but Wolf is being held in contempt of a federal grand jury.

Wolf's own religious faith has been strengthened by the experience. He's been reading his Bible regularly and recently requested a Greek Bible for further study.

He tells her that he is sustained by the fact that he is doing something important, sticking to something he believes in, and he believes he is protecting the Constitution.

"Mom, I'm doing this so other people don't have to go to jail," he tells her.

She agrees, and says that's why she's working so hard for a federal shield law.

"I don't want his time in jail to be for nothing."

This article is copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.