Vanessa Leggett (née Levrier; born May 18, 1968) is an American freelance journalist and lecturer who was jailed by the U.S. Justice Department for 168 days for protecting sources and research notes for an independent book about a federal murder-for-hire case.
[7] On June 19, 2001, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon ordered Leggett to appear in court the next day with her notes and tapes for a book she was researching about the murder.
The order was in response to a grand jury that had convened to investigate the possibility of filing federal murder charges against the victim's husband, Robert Angleton.
[9] The New York Times called Leggett's incarceration "a brazen assault on 1st Amendment values and the public interest in a free press.
[13][14] Leggett gave a prison interview for the Fall 2001 issue of The News Media & The Law and told the magazine she did not know at that point how long she would remain incarcerated.
[17][18] Leggett signed a book contract in 2002 with Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, about the Angleton murder for a reported $600,000 advance.
In addition, the Washington Independent Writers' Legal and Educational Fund presented Leggett with a $1,000 check for her stand in support of the First Amendment.
[20] She also lectured at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine; and the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement.
While in custody, Leggett continued her career as a freelance writer with an article for Newsweek, headlined "My Principles Have Landed Me in Jail," which was published in the magazine's September 2001 edition.