One hundred and sixty-eight days — that’s the record for the longest jailing of a writer for contempt in U.S. history. Cub crime writer Vanessa Leggett holds that record, and odds are that she will break her own record in 2002. Leggett recently was sprung from a Houston jail not because the federal government withdrew its grand jury subpoena for her notes of interviews with confidential sources and not because she relented and produced those notes. She was released because the grand jury that issued the subpoena expired.
One hundred and sixty-eight days is a lot of time for Leggett to ponder how she landed in this mess. To an aspiring true crime writer, the lure of a high-profile Houston homicide proved too strong. Think of it: sex; money; murder; a dead wife; a brother-in-law’s confession and suicide; the husband’s acquittal in state court; and a federal tax investigation. All of it was a tailor-made Texas tale that hooked the writer. Unfortunately, her unfinished book collided with the feds’ unfinished business, and the rest is history.
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