Arizona Sen. Wendy Rogers' restraining order against reporter dismissed by Flagstaff judge

FLAGSTAFF — A Flagstaff judge has dismissed the restraining order filed by Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers against a reporter who visited her two Phoenix-area homes while gathering facts for an article.

Flagstaff Justice of the Peace Howard Grodman dismissed the injunction against harassment after a three-hour hearing Wednesday where both Rogers and reporter Camryn Sanchez testified.

Grodman said that as an investigative reporter, Sanchez had a legitimate purpose in showing up to Rogers' residences and therefore the petition did not meet the threshold needed for a restraining order.

While Grodman said he believed that Rogers' feelings of fear and harassment were genuine, he said other reasonable people might not feel the same.

He offered examples of court process servers or trick-or-treaters knocking on doors, which Rogers herself testified to doing “tens of thousands” of times while she was running for office. While these things might seem annoying or harassing to some, he said, others might feel differently.

“Unless there’s a sign that says no trespassing or unless there’s a homeowner that says you must leave, then you’re allowed to knock on the door and try to engage in conversation,” Grodman said.

"I don't think there is a series of acts directed at Sen. Rogers that would cause a reasonable person to be seriously alarmed, annoyed or harrassed, even if she in fact was," he said.

Throughout her testimony, Rogers described having her personal space "violated" when she was approached by Sanchez on the Senate floor on two occasions, prompting her to direct Capitol staff to restrict the reporter from asking Rogers any questions at her desk.

It was because of this arrangement that Rogers was even more surprised to see Sanchez on the cameras of her houses in Tempe and Chandler, she said.

She added that privacy is very important to her, especially after receiving death threats last summer.

"I'm a target, all of us are," Rogers said of her fellow legislators.

Rogers' attorney tried to characterize the home visits as completely out of the norm for reporters, wildly inappropriate and thus encroaching on what could be considered harassment.

But Sanchez's attorney argued that as a reporter working on a story specifically related to the senator's primary residence, it was well within her job responsibilities to go to the properties — a sentiment the judge ultimately agreed with.

While on the stand, Sanchez recounted her limited interactions with Rogers at the state Senate. She said she was never explicitly told she was not allowed to contact the senator and that any restriction was limited to Rogers' desk area in the Senate. Other areas, including elsewhere in the Senate building, were fair game as far as she understood, she said.

Sanchez also recounted checking with the Senate's sergeant-at-arms, who enforces the rules, to ensure she was still in good standing as a credentialed member of the press. She said they never indicated she was operating out of line.

Different judge OK'd initial order

Wednesday's decision comes after a different judge last month approved the order against Sanchez, an Arizona Capitol Times reporter who Rogers claimed harassed her by the visits and for asking her questions on the Senate floor. Sanchez and the news organization sought to reverse the order, which would have allowed police to arrest Sanchez if she went to Rogers' homes again over the next year.

News media organizations and journalists came to Sanchez's defense after learning of the order, calling it an affront to freedom of the press.

"We intend to challenge this injunction on behalf of Ms. Sanchez because it is baseless and an unconstitutional prior restraint against a reporter investigating public allegations involving the senator," Capitol Times Publisher Michael Gorman said in a column about the order prior to the hearing.

Rogers is a retired Air Force pilot and nationally known election-conspiracy theorist who was censured last year by her Republican peers for social media statements about her desire to see political enemies hanged. Although Sanchez is a fixture in the Senate, which she regularly writes about, Rogers said in a public statement after the order was issued that she doesn't know what Sanchez is "capable of" and that she did not "trust that this person wouldn't lash out and try to physically harm me in some fashion."

A recorded, 18-minute hearing shows how in April Rogers told Flagstaff Justice Court Magistrate Judge Amy Criddle that it was abnormal for a reporter to visit a lawmaker's home and hoped to have Sanchez banned from the Senate entirely. Criddle seemed to doubt that asking questions of a senator constituted harassment and declined to ban Sanchez from the state Capitol, limiting the order to apply only to Rogers' residences.

Reporter was investigating Rogers' residency claims

Sanchez was researching whether Rogers really lives in Legislative District 7, a Republican-leaning district that includes Flagstaff, Payson and Globe, and whether taxpayer-funded reimbursements to the senator for mileage and subsistence are accurate.

Rogers and her husband have lived in a Tempe home for more than 20 years and signed a property deed for a new home in January that states the couple was "currently residing" in Tempe. The new home in Chandler is adjacent to an airport and comes equipped with an airplane hangar.

Rogers could not have won an election in the Democratic-leaning Tempe and Chandler districts where her homes are, but owns a small mobile home in Flagstaff. The Arizona Constitution and state law require lawmakers to live in their districts, though courts have diluted the requirement over time, making it more difficult for challengers to prove residency.

Greater effect sought: In recording, state Sen. Wendy Rogers pressed judge for additional restrictions on reporter

Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on Twitter @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Judge dismisses Sen. Wendy Rogers' restraining order against reporter