Reporter quits journalism over threat on her life

Michael Harthorne

Newser staff

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from KDVR.

(NEWSER) – A Denver TV reporter has quit journalism after she says her life was threatened by the subject of one of her stories and her bosses failed to take it seriously, Mediaite reports. Heidi Hemmat was an award-winning investigative journalist with a focus on business fraud for KDVR. In February 2015, her investigation led to fraud charges against a local business owner. According to Raw Story, Muhammed Murib of AAAA TV Electronics Repair and Vacuum started harassing and threatening Hemmat. Then it got worse. In a blog post revealing what happened, Hemmat says she got a call from Murib's therapist—under an exception to HIPAA laws that allows health providers to violate patient privacy when the patient "presents a serious and imminent threat of harm."

Hemmat says her boss at KDVR balked at the cost of providing security for her, saying, "If he was going to kill you, he would have done it by now." In a statement, KDVR denies the "unequivocally false" accusations, saying "we took Heidi's concerns very seriously and provided her with support, security, and an attorney, for which Heidi expressed her appreciation. To be clear, we never denied a request for additional security." Hemmat took out restraining orders against Murib, "but my sense of safety was gone—and the way I viewed my job forever changed," she writes. "I couldn't keep ambushing people who did bad things to other people." And so she quit. Despite the end of her journalism career and fear for her own life, Hemmat says she has found a reason to be thankful in her husband and young children