Taricani's sentencing

Update: Jim gets six months of home confinement. (WJAR story ... ProJo story (Updated as of 5:10 p.m. EST with details.))

Not great -- a reporter should not have to reveal a source in a case like this -- but at least not prison.

According to the Providence Journal: In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ernest C. Torres cited Taricani's health and years of good citizenship as mitigating factors.

And I think it was even better citizenship, judge, to show the public the slime pool that is Providence politics and then have the honor to keep a pledge not to reveal a source's name. Bevilacqua (see below) says he did not force Taricani to do that; I'd just find myself believing Jim's version a tad more.

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I've been keeping a close eye today on TV reporter and old friend Jim Taricani's sentencing in Providence. He's been found in contempt for refusing to say who leaked him a tape showing one of then Mayor Buddy Cianci's aides taking a bribe. The Providence Journal reports that as of 12:30 p.m., District Judge Ernest Torres called a recess for lunch.

So far have not seen any updates there or at WPRI or WJAR, Jim's station.

Lawyer Joseph Bevilacqua Jr. (part of the family with a checkered past in the nation's smallest state) admitted he had lied at first when a prosecutor asked if he were the source of the tape. He now fesses up.

Let's hope all goes well for Jim, who has a heart condition and could face up to six months in prison.