After three days of jury selection, a jury in the trial for accused murder Adam Longoria was seated by 10:30 a.m. Thursday. However, there was a snag.
After numerous admonitions by Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts that the jurors not be photographed or video taped, and that their names not be released to the public, a local radio station broadcast one of the names via its website, said Ron Keefover, education-information officer with the Kansas Supreme Court.
Apparently, the Eagle Radio of Great Bend tapped into a feed from the KWCH videographer from Wichita who was the pool video operator for the trial Thursday.
Although there were no radio station personnel were present in the courtroom Thursday, the remaining media representatives were called by an angry Kitts into a conference room behind the bench. The reporters and photographers were reminded about the rule covering the jury and were told if there were any other violations, the media might be expelled from the courtroom.
Keefover said Eagle Radio is barred from streaming any of the Longoria Proceedings after an order from Kitts.
“After a report to judge Hannelore Kitts that one of the selected juror’s names in the Adam Longoria murder trial was broadcast over Eagle Radio ... the judge ordered the Great Bend stations to shut down the audio stream on greatbendpost.com,” reads a statement on Eagle’s website. The statement goes on to say Eagle Radio was taking a shared feed from a “multi” box provided by Channel 12 out of Wichita and had received permission to do so.
 “When Judge Kitts named one of the jurors out loud in the courtroom, the audio went out to several media sources. It’s not known how many other media outlets also broadcast the same juror’s name. Eagle immediately stopped the audio realizing that the verbage was not intended for broadcast.” After visitng with Keefover, “Eagle was informed that the judges order stood until further review. At this time, the order applies only to Eagle Communications Great Bend.”
The statement notes Eagle didn’t broadcast the name on any of its four Great Bend radio stations “as was reported to the judge.”