Robbins won in the Continuing Coverage category for newspapers for his story that that questioned key testimony of a star witness against Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder. The story, "Tall Tales of a Mafia Mistress," got Robbins subpoenaed by both the defense and prosecution in the case. Robbins and other winners will be honored at a formal dinner on June 16. A full list of winners can be found on the NY Press Club's site.
We're not sure how big they are, but after 15 years at the Santa Barbara Independent, Tom Morey has left two pairs of shoes to fill. According to a release from the paper, Jen Malkin and Robby Robbins will replace Morey by "dividing the awesome task of sales management." Robbins, who serves on the AAN Board as Classified Advertising Chair, "will concentrate on bringing sales in the door" while Malkin "lords over" production and marketing. And Morey isn't going anywhere: He will remain with the paper as part of the sales management team focusing on the local arts community.
The Voice has finalists in three categories in the annual awards handed out by the Society for Professional Journalists' New York City chapter: Tom Robbins in beat reporting, Rob Harvilla in arts reporting, and Chloe A. Hillard in minority focus, which includes "coverage of a particular minority community, or of an issue with particular impact on such a community, that has import to the community at large." Winners will be announced May 15.
Doug Elder and Robby Robbins have been named the winners of the AAN CAN European Dream Trip contest, which ended on Friday. As the sales rep and sales manager who generated the most new business between Oct. 11, 2007 and March 21, they will each be awarded a 10-day trip for two that includes round-trip airfare and accommodations for three nights each in London, Paris and Rome. Elder and Robbins ended up with a final tally of $19,928, placing well ahead of the runner-up, John DeMartino of the Independent Weekly, who finished with $2,888.
Earlier this month, 10-year-old interview tapes that Robbins still had derailed the trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder. With the dust now settled, he talks to the Brooklyn Paper about what it felt like to be on the other side of a news story. "A reporter has got no business being a part of a news story, but sometimes you get dragged in kicking and screaming and that’s what happened here. I had no idea that my tapes were going to be the knockout punch for this case," he says. "I didn't much like being a part of the story, but I didn't know any way out of it either."
As we mentioned yesterday, Tom Robbins' decision to make public the tapes that led to the dismissal of a FBI mob trial was not an easy one for him to make. In today's New York Times, he explains further his decision to break his pledge of confidentiality to star witness Linda Schiro. He tells the Times he came forward, rather than his colleague Jerry Capeci, because Capeci's entire career hinges on writing about the mob. "I don't face the same kind of jeopardy," Robbins says. "Jerry spends his life reporting on people who commit murders. The last thing in the world he wants to do is to be brought to the stand and asked about his sources." Capeci says the pair felt comfortable breaking their pledge of confidentiality since Schiro had broken it herself by testifying. "It wasn't a question of hurting her by violating the confidentiality," he says. "She had already discussed the material that she told us in confidence."
Prosecutors and defense lawyers met yesterday with the Voice's Tom Robbins to listen to his taped interviews that brought into question the testimony of the star witness in the trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder. By the end of the day, prosecutors said the recordings gave them no choice but to drop the case, the New York Times reports. Robbins, who had interviewed Linda Schiro in 1997, says he struggled with the decision to make the tapes available. "Tell me what else I could have done?" Robbins asks the Daily News. "If you sit silent, then someone could go to jail for life. I chose not to live with that." UPDATE: The Voice has digitized the tapes and made the files available online.
Lawyers for both the defense and prosecution subpoenaed Tom Robbins Tuesday night after the Voice published his story that questions key testimony of a star witness against Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of helping the mob commit murder, the Voice reports. Robbins reported to court this morning with his notes and his lawyer. In 1997, he interviewed Linda Schiro, the former companion of Greg "the Grim Reaper" Scarpa. In those interviews, Schiro contradicted testimony she's given in this trial, when she said DeVecchio had a hand in four mob murders. "The story that Linda Schiro told us in three of four of the murders is diametrically opposed to the testimony she is giving in court," Robbins tells the Daily News. "She's lying to somebody."
Tom Robbins is the second distinguished journalist to occupy the post at Hunter College, established to honor Newfield. Robbins, a former colleague of Newfield's at both the Voice and the Daily News, will teach a course entitled "Urban Investigative Reporting" and will also assist students in researching and writing a lengthy article or series of articles focused on an aspect of city life. "Whether tomorrow's journalists are writing online or on paper, we need more of them who understand and share Jack Newfield's passion for justice and the city he lived in," Robbins says in a press release.
Penelope Huston-Baer is leaving her position as director of new media for the Santa Barbara Independent to move back to her hometown, Memphis, but she is excited that Robby Robbins (pictured) is pulling up his Southern roots to take her place. She has been at the Independent for seven years, and in the alt-weekly industry for 16; Robbins is leaving the Independent Weekly in Durham after 12 years.
