My Publications
Lessons Learned From Col. Jeff Cooper
When I was working full-time, I used the pretext of media coverage to arrange as many adventures as possible. Thanks to an amazing PAO in the Navy, I had rides in a half-dozen fighter jets. He was so connected that I got aboard a nuclear submarine, underway in the Puget Sound. I used the same publicity ploy to do the first version of this story. My inane question served as the perfect setup when I reprised part of it—almost 30 years later.
I Wait For My Superiors in New York to Scream
Getting kicked around at local news stations was perfect training for my new role as a freelance TV producer. I was fairly impervious to insults and other forms of degradation before, but working for the networks really toughened me up, dealing with people who took themselves way, way too seriously. Inside Edition was the exception in the national media, and it's the unnamed syndicated entertainment show in this story.
The last story I wrote for San Diego Magazine, but one of my favorites. Check out the first paragraph. It's non-traditional journalism, but somebody liked it. I received a Diversity Prize from the Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Professional Chapter.
This story allowed me to revisit some of my earlier reporting on a few notorious homicide investigations in San Diego. I quote extensively from an interrogation video I obtained while I was a reporter at News 8. Even though I'm describing what the tape shows—and yes, it was a VHS—this story demonstrates the power of a compelling narrative.
A nice compilation of interviews, plus another opportunity for me to experiment with narrative voice. I won't pretend this is a great story, but it was fun to write.
When San Diego Magazine pitched this idea to me, I said yes. I knew exactly how I would approach this story, which might otherwise become a bureaucratic, jargon-filled snoozer. When I was working at News 8, a guy named Robert Billberg used to regale me with examples of an inept county probation department. I talked to him on the phone for hours, yet I could never figure out how to tell the story on television. But it was perfect for print. When a target of your investigation announces his resignation before the story even gets published, you must be doing something right.
I've managed to irritate a lot of suits in my career, but nothing else matched their frantic scrambling when I obtained their secret interrogation video of David Westerfield. I was the subject of a departmental investigation and an interview (recorded, of course) with Internal Affairs at police headquarters, plus a subpoena for contempt of court.
The first story in the two-part series on the Westerfield case. More experimenting with narrative form. In this magazine article, I also incorporated incidents I witnessed as a freelancer for a television network and the tabloids.
I've had a great run, obtaining information that I wasn't supposed to have. Of course, that's what makes it so interesting. The Rick Post story proves the value of confidential documents and maintaining good relationships with the sources who are able to provide them.
The Case of the Forensic Femme Fatale
The Kristin Rossum case started my second career in journalism as a freelancer. With this story, I proved that I was more than a former TV clown. As I said on a Court TV special about the Greg de Villers murder investigation, you can't make this stuff up.
Hoist the Jolly Roger
My Former Students in Print:
In my journalism classes, we turned culminating assignments into published articles, complete with paychecks. That's the whole idea—writing for money. Dr. Johnson already covered this in the 18th century, but it's still true.