A hospital in St. Joseph, Missouri, wages a legal war against the local newspaper

The case, which began as a garden-variety employment lawsuit, has morphed into a First Amendment battle.
A legal dispute over the firing of a hospital employee has escalated into a battle pitting one of the largest employers in St. Joseph, Missouri, against the city’s daily newspaper.

Heartland Regional Medical Center — which operates as Mosaic Life Care — earlier this month deposed both the reporter who covered the dispute for the St. Joseph News-Press, Clayton Anderson, and the newspaper’s director of news and content, Steven Booher.

The hospital has since upped the ante and requested sanctions against attorneys representing the fired hospital employee, Reba Lasseur. Mosaic argues that Lasseur's attorneys disclosed information to the newspaper that was subject to a court-issued protective order.