Talk:David Leeson

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Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:David Leeson/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

This article is presently Start-class because (a) there's no photo (particularly an issue considering it's about a photojournalist) and (b) there's a LOT more info out there on him. It's a little hard searching databases, though; since he's a photojournalist, plenty of articles that have nothing to do with him personally turn up in searches, and if you tell a search engine to exclude articles that list his name in a photo caption, you're going to exclude many articles about him that happen to be illustrated with a photo of or by Leeson.Lawikitejana 19:20, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 19:20, 10 August 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 12:58, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Edit to arrest and conviction[edit]

Multiple unnecessary revisions have been made to Leeson's paragraphs on his arrest and conviction. Please do not revise to remove factual material or sources, as it goes agains the rules and spirit of Wikipedia. Melton Juan (talk) 00:01, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

:While I personally lean toward including this information since it's been written about pretty publicly, including it might violate WP:BLPCRIME.

In short, the inclusion of this material depends on whether or not you consider Leeson a public figure. I'd argue that since he's won several Pulitzers, he falls pretty close to this category, but is still fairly niche.
I'll let brighter minds than mine weigh in, but I'm on the KEEP side for now. PureRED | talk to me | 00:40, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Popping back in here to say that since he pled guilty to certain charges, WP:BLPCRIME no longer seems to apply. Firm KEEP from me. PureRED | talk to me | 03:10, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I am strongly in favor of KEEPing, but I believe it can be written better than it is now. He seems like a public figure, and the arrest did result in a guilty plea. CovetJogs (talk) 01:16, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The problem is that it doesn't seem anyone has found reliable secondary sources covering this alleged guilty plea. There are reliable sources from when he was first charged [1] but nothing that seems to cover what happened after. Per WP:BLPPRIMARY we cannot rely on court transcripts etc to establish what happened in the case and it seems the one obituary we have so far chose not to mention the case at all. It's possible one reason there aren't many obituaries is because of the case, I don't know but either way unless we have sources there's no much we can do even if it's true. Nil Einne (talk) 12:12, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • This is not really subject to a vote at this time. WP:BLP is fairly firm and straightforward on this. We need two things 1) reliable secondary sources that 2) cover the conviction. Without BOTH of those, the situation needs to remain out of the article. Please focus the talk page discussion on providing such sources, not on trying to find ways to circumvent BLP rules. --Jayron32 12:19, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    From research on Dallas County Felony and Misdemeanor Courts Case Information a few things are clear. The charge for which Mr. Leeson was arrested was "dismissed". A lesser charge was added, "INJ_CHILD," which is injury to a child (mental of physical) is classified in his case as "NAOG," which is "NonAdjudication of Guilt (Agreed plea)". A NonAdjudication of Guilt" is defined as,
    "The court does not give a final judgment regarding the case. The defendant is given probation, a program or community service in which they have a specified amount of time to complete. If the defendant complies, the case may be dismissed. If they do not dismiss, then the disposition remains adjudication withheld and the case is closed. However, if the defendant is found in violation, the case disposition may be changed and the defendant can be found guilty."
    In other words, a judgment was pending the completion of probation, and a final judgment was never made. Since Mr. Leeson was in compliance during his probation period (there would be a record if he was not), he was on track to having these charges dismissed. Since he did not live long enough to have the case dismissed, the case will now be "closed," without judgment. It is for this reason that I am strongly in favor of NOT KEEPING this information on Mr. Leeson's page, a page that merits being on Wiki in the first place, only because he was one of the most important and decorated journalistic photographers of the last 50 years, not because of an isolated arrest that never resulted in a conviction. But, there is an issue - since I found this information via search, I am not able to find a link that takes you straight to this page (there is not a unique URL). (I am still learning Wiki editing details, and apologize if I have used improper formatting, here.) User:JohnBlutarsky JohnBlutarsky (talk) 15:56, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    This was extremely helpful, thank you for sharing. As Jayron32 mentioned above, it seems like this isn't really a voting topic, but more of a clearcut "do not include" item at present--and the information you've provided cements that case even more.
    Great discussion, y'all. Thanks, PureRED | talk to me | 16:03, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    it's probably worth noting that you are a personal friend of the deceased, JohnBlutarsky. CovetJogs (talk) 16:07, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    and furthermore, there is no guarantee that anyone complies with their probation. so you cannot assume the case would have been dismissed. CovetJogs (talk) 16:08, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm not sure how you know who JohnBlutarsky is, CovetJogs, and even if you do, this is not a matter for discussing openly on Wikipedia. I, on the other hand, never heard of the person before yesterday when I was responding to a post at WP:RFPP, where upon further investigation, I found the BLP-violating content. BLP policy is some of the most stringent on Wikipedia, and is not subject to the normal rules of consensus building, WP:EW, and the like. Policy is clear and unambiguous: Contested material must remain out of a BLP article until we have solid sourcing to back up the text. WP:BLPPRIMARY makes it clear that court documents, as a WP:PRIMARY source, cannot be used in this context. This requires secondary sources where someone else has already done the analysis and written about it. This is not a matter of the truth or not, it's a matter of what is verifiable, not everything that is true is sufficiently verifiable, and with biographies of living people (or recently dead, per policy) things must be scrupulously sourced before we can add them. Court documents, either for (or against) inclusion of the material is not terribly relevant. What we need is a secondary reporting of the court case and its results. Without that, whether it is true or not, policy says we don't include it. --Jayron32 16:14, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    oh, no, i'm not arguing with you here. although i pointed out on another administrator's talk page the other day that there's a circular logic to the rules here that is frustrating. but Wikipedia:Conflict of interest applies for some of the people editing this page. CovetJogs (talk) 16:18, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    and i'm not Wikipedia:OUTING, just noting a conflict of interest. CovetJogs (talk) 16:19, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    Accusations without evidence are Casting aspersions. Which you should not do. And COI is expressly not an exemption to WP:OUTING: if you have evidence of such, email it privately to WP:ARBCOM and let them handle it. --Jayron32 16:32, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    thank you, i had not seen that CovetJogs (talk) 16:40, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]


The policy can [emphasis mine] extend based on editorial consensus for an indeterminate period beyond the date of death—six months, one year, two years at the outside. Such extensions would only apply to contentious or questionable material about the subject that has implications for their living relatives and friends, such as in the case of a possible suicide or particularly gruesome crime.

Emphasis on the word can above. It's not a blanket stipulation of the policy. It's a judgment call that's also based on editorial consensus, which at the moment seems not to favor me—but that is subjective and subject to change if I can build consensus. I also don't think that the objections of three or four people with privileges constitutes editorial consensus.

Even in this case, the application or extension of the policy should only apply to "to contentious or questionable material about the subject that has implications for their living relatives and friends." Leeson's arrest, admission of guilt, and sentencing aren't contested in this discussion, or anywhere else that I can find. All of the arguments are about BLP. His family is well aware of his legal problems, as is the general public, because the court records are public domain and his arrest was reported in several newspapers.

It has been pointed out that BLP prohibits the use of court records as the sole citation, which I agree with. However, court records are acceptable on this page, because it doesn't fall under the requirements of the BLP for the reasons I mentioned above. Court records are acceptable in any other instance, as far as I can tell.

I've been banned from the page for my additions, but this is not an appeal. I'm merely trying make my reasoning clear. Melton Juan (talk) 15:20, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In case someone wonders, Melton Juan's policy-based point above matches the reasons for my previous hesitance to keep the article protected and the user blocked. The bold-formatted text parts and general tone of the WP:BDP section as of today do not justify treating the article as a biography of a living person as a kind of emergency admin action against article-specific editorial consensus. To me, this means that simply saying "BLP applies" ("It clearly does. It's only been a few days") isn't a valid argument by itself. "This is not really subject to a vote at this time" – well yes, it is. And it's perfectly fine to be cautious and keep the material removed unless a clear consensus for inclusion is found, but that's primarily because of WP:ONUS (and/or WP:BURDEN or WP:UNDUE), independently of the applicability of the BLP policy. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 16:54, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
ToBeFree There can't be any consensus to include the material at the moment, because there aren't any reliable sources for it (and this may well be - as is pointed out above - because there never was any actual conviction due to the subject's death.) The single purpose account whose sole edits at Wikipedia have been to try to insert this material has been told this over and over again. I have already had to block them from the article, and I have had to redact numerous times where they simply repeated their comments on talk pages instead (including in their rejected unblock appeal). If they do it again, I am simply going to indef them. Black Kite (talk) 21:02, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A couple of things: 1) I'm pretty sure I have the right to build consensus for my points, since editorial consensus is a requirement. 2.) What difference does it make that I'm a new user? 3.) A guilty plea IS a conviction in any court anywhere. Melton Juan (talk) 22:00, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Are you saying that court documents can't be used on Wikipedia? I really don't understand that point. Melton Juan (talk) 22:01, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
For your first point, a guilty plea is not always a conviction in cases of deferred adjudication/prosecution, so that's kind of a DOA argument.
To your second, please see WP:PRIMARYCARE, which includes this line: "...court documents, are usually not acceptable primary sources, because it is impossible for the viewer to know whether the person listed on the document is the notable subject rather than another person who happens to have the same name." PureRED | talk to me | 22:07, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have support for your first point, instead of merely saying that a guilty plea is not a conviction? Your second point includes the word "usually" and the court documents in this instance provide more than enough proof that they concern the subject of this page. I'd be happy to quote from them, but I feel that would make certain people unhappy.
So many times in this discussion, editors merely point to a policy and don't provide the actual language that concerns the issues. Melton Juan (talk) 22:19, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
And let me say, that because the defendant died before the charges could be deferred, they are still in place. No legal documents have been filed that say otherwise. Melton Juan (talk) 22:21, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A plea and a conviction are two very different things. While a guilty plea does often result in a conviction, it doesn't have to, nor does it always. This is detailed better in Texas' Code of Criminal Procedure 42.12, Sec. 5.
Wikipedia policies are often vague and in other cases might fit in some scenarios and not in others. There are also plenty of problems you can dive into that explain why Wikipedia can be WP:NOTSOGREAT. All that to say, that's why consensus building is critical in cases like these.
This debate is becoming circular at this point. If you can find secondary sources for this material, great, I encourage you to add it. ✌️ PureRED | talk to me | 00:40, 3 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the details. I now see that I was incorrect in my assertion that a guilty plea does not always result in a conviction. I still think that the case hasn't been deferred because Leeson is dead. However, I'd be amenable to revising my edit to say he pleaded guilty to the charges and omit and reference to conviction. I think that is accurate.
I also agree about consensus building, which is what I'm trying to do, as I mentioned above in my response to BK. I think the process tends to be lengthy when talking about critical details that affect transparency. vs policy, especially in this specific case. So I don't agree that it is circular quite yet. I further agree that some of the policies are intentionally vague so that we can discuss individual cases, but I believe the wording of the policies is carefully thought out in order to frame those conversations. (I think we've built some consensus here! lol)
I still think that it is essential to prominently mention Leeson's arrest and admission of guilt to the charge of Injury to a Child with Intentional Bodily Injury. It is as important to his legacy as his photographic and journalistic achievements. Melton Juan (talk) 13:55, 3 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
We can only do so if it is in line with Wikipedia's unambiguous policy on this; arrests without convictions don't get mentioned in such articles, and we need a secondary source (like newspapers, etc.) to discuss the admission of guilt and/or any conviction. Find those quality secondary sources, and AFTER you do that, we can add the information. --Jayron32 14:45, 3 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Which policy are you referring to? Melton Juan (talk) 20:52, 3 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I'm growing weary of you ignoring the times we've both linked and quoted this policy at you. See WP:BLPPRIMARY, among others, to wit, "Do not use trial transcripts and other court records, or other public documents, to support assertions about a living person." in combination with WP:BDP, to wit, "policy can extend based on editorial consensus for an indeterminate period beyond the date of death—six months, one year, two years at the outside. Such extensions would only apply to contentious or questionable material about the subject that has implications for their living relatives and friends, such as in the case of a possible suicide or particularly gruesome crime." (bold mine). You've been quoted both of those policies multiple times now. --Jayron32 11:05, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Jayron32, I and others have described how these policies don't apply in this very thread. Please see above. Melton Juan (talk) 14:40, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Claiming it doesn't make it true. I wouldn't keep pressing forward unless you actually have the correct sources. Repeatedly ignoring warnings is a bad path to go down. You've been told what the policy is. I am not here to debate that with you. I am telling you that you are wrong. You would be well advised to let the matter rest, if you keep pressing in the direction you seem to want to, which is to say, if you again try to re-insert the same information without the correct sources, it will not go well for you. --Jayron32 15:32, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(Redacted)

  • As you were told before, they are not. 1) We report on convictions only, not accusations 2) Evidence of convictions requires secondary source reporting. This is the same thing you've been trying to insert into the article; which is a combination of a secondary source about an accusation (can't include because its an accusation and not a conviction) and a primary source about court proceedings (can't include because it is a primary source). Again, it is growing wearisome explaining this to you over and over again. If you put this in the article as you have written above, this is a BLP violation you have been warned about already, and you may be sanctioned for it. Find the right sources, and if you can't, let the matter drop. --Jayron32 15:35, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think that's pretty much enough now. Blocked sitewide, indefinitely. Black Kite (talk) 18:42, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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