Colorado judge blocks Durango detective from accessing bookstore records

(CN) — A Colorado judge granted a restraining order preventing the Durango Police Department from obtaining the purchase history of several customers from a local bookstore.

“Maria's Bookshop has demonstrated that it has a reasonable probability of success on its claim that no seizure of book-purchase records may be enforced absent a pre-seizure adversarial hearing,” wrote Sixth Judicial District Judge Kim Shropshire in a four-page order published Monday night.

During the required hearing, Shropshire wrote the police department must “meet the constitutional strict scrutiny requirements of showing a compelling government interest that is so great that it overcomes harm to the constitutional interests in free expression and privacy.”

In January, Durango Detective Sydney Walters approached an employee at Maria’s Bookshop asking for the purchase history of a particular customer, the store's owner said in the complaint. The employee explained the business’s customer privacy policy and declined to provide records. Walters then filed a request for an order compelling the bookstore to produce the book buy records.

The court granted the order on Jan. 15, finding probable cause the records would provide insight into a criminal case. It is not clear from the order what criminal offenses the police department is investigating.

Maria’s Bookshop sued Walters and the city of Durango on Feb. 20, claiming fulfilling the request for records without a court hearing violated both the state and federal constitutions.

The right to keep book purchases private was upheld in federal court with the quashing of an attorney’s 1998 subpoena to obtain Monica Lewinsky’s book purchase history from Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C. Locally, Colorado Supreme Court precedent dates back to the 2002 case Tattered Cover v. Thornton, which also affirmed the right to anonymously buy books.

Owned by Evan Schertz, Maria’s Bookshop has operated in Durango for 42 years.

"Buying a book is not a crime,” attorney Christopher Beall told Courthouse News over the phone.

“Everyone has a First Amendment right to privacy with what they read,” said Beale, who represents Maria’s Bookshop and practices with Recht Kornfeld in Denver.

In a statement, Durango City Attorney Mark Morgan defended the police's request.

"The city attorney's office is working with the attorney for the bookstore towards a resolution that balances privacy issues with the investigation of a sex crime against a minor," Morgan said.

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