Seeking information on Vanessa Leggett... - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Jimellow · 03-30-2005, 04:30 AM

For those that aren't familiar with the Vanessa Leggett story, here is a brief summary:

Quote:

When a federal grand jury was convened to investigate the possibility of filing federal murder charges against Houstonian Robert Angleton, the city braced itself for another media frenzy. In 1998, Robert Angleton had been acquitted in state court of murdering his wife, socialite Doris Angleton, who was found shot to death on April 16, 1997, in her River Oaks home. The state court trial had been a media circus, replete with a rumored millionaire bookie, his ne'er-do-well brother, a messy impending divorce, and a jailhouse confession and suicide.

However, the person who received the most attention was not directly involved in the murder. Vanessa Leggett, a part-time college instructor and aspiring true crime writer, stole the limelight when she refused to turn over to the federal grand jury information that she had gathered during her four-year investigation. On July 19, 2001, Leggett was held in civil contempt under 28 U.S.C. § 1826 as a recalcitrant witness.[2] She went to jail the next day and was not released until January 4, 2002, when the grand jury ended its Angleton investigation without handing down a single indictment.

Leggett was incarcerated longer than any reporter in U.S. history for refusing to disclose research collected in the course of newsgathering.[3] As is usual in states like Texas with no shield laws, neither the district court nor the Fifth Circuit showed compassion for Leggett's professional integrity and loyalty to her confidential sources. She was forced to serve the maximum term for contempt of court, which was the shorter of either the duration of the grand jury investigation or eighteen months.

Link to Article

We are discussing this case in Contemporary Issues in Writing class, and I was wondering if anyone here at the TFP had any updated information regarding the case, or Vanessa Leggett herself?

Has she gone back to jail since? Was the book in question ever published? Is there any new (post 2001) information that you know relating to the incident that I could use for my class?

If you have information, links to articles/stories, or just personal knowledge of what has happened more recently with Vanessa Leggett and her trial, I'd greatly appreciate you sharing it, as it is an interesting topic, but one that seems to not have much coverage since it hit the news wires in 2001.

Thanks!

f6twister · 03-30-2005, 08:33 AM

I found some good information just by Googling her name. It hit on 12,100 entries, some of which provided (at least what appeared to me) could be helpful.

03-30-2005, 08:33 AM	#2 (permalink)
f6twister Addict	I found some good information just by Googling her name. It hit on 12,100 entries, some of which provided (at least what appeared to me) could be helpful. __________________ A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. Calvin