Florida Star Case

The Florida Star is a weekly newspaper which serves the community of Jacksonville, Florida, and which has an average circulation of approximately 18,000 copies. A regular feature of the newspaper is its "Police Reports" section. [*527] That section, typically two to three pages in length, contains brief articles describing local criminal incidents under police investigation.

On October 20, 1983, appellee B. J. F. 2 reported to the Duval County, Florida, Sheriff 's Department (Department) that she had been robbed and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant. The Department prepared [**2606] a report on the incident which identified B. J. F. by her full name. The Department then placed the report in its pressroom. The Department does not

On appeal, the Florida District Court of Appeal sua sponte revised the caption, stating that it would refer to the appellee by her initials, "in order to preserve [her] privacy interests." 499 So. 2d 883, 883, n. (1986). Respecting those interests, we, too, refer to appellee by her initials, both in the caption and in our discussion.

A Florida Star reporter-trainee sent to the pressroom copied the police report verbatim, including B. J. F. 's full name, on a blank duplicate of the Department 's forms. A Florida Star reporter then prepared a one-paragraph article about the crime, derived entirely from the trainee 's copy of the police report. The article included B. J. F. 's full name. It appeared in the "Robberies" subsection of the "Police Reports" section on October 29, 1983, one of 54 police blotter stories in that day 's edition. The article read:

"[B. J. F.] reported on Thursday, October 20, she was crossing Brentwood Park, which is in the 500 block of Golfair Boulevard, enroute to her bus stop, when an unknown black man ran up behind the lady and placed a knife to her neck and told her not to yell. The suspect then undressed the lady and had sexual intercourse with her before fleeing the scene with her 60 cents, Timex watch and gold necklace. Patrol efforts have been suspended concerning this incident because of a lack of

3 In Doe v. Sarasota-Bradenton Florida Television Co., 436 So. 2d, at 329, the Second District Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal on First Amendment grounds of a rape victim 's damages claim against a Florida television station which had broadcast portions of her testimony at her assailant 's trial. The court reasoned that, as in Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469 (1975), the information in question "was readily available to the public, through the vehicle of a public trial." 436 So. 2d, at 330. The court stated, however, that ß 794.03 could constitutionally be applied to punish publication of a sexual offense victim 's name or other identifying information where it had not yet become "part of an open public record" by virtue of being revealed in "open, public judicial proceedings." Ibid., citing Fla. Op. Atty.