I-Team Reporter Laure Quinlivan Out At Ch. 9

Here's some Breaking News you probably won't see on Channel 9: Award-winning investigative reporter Laure Quinlivan will leave the station after her final two stories air Tuesday and Wednesday on Channel 9.

Quinlivan, one of the most honored TV reporters in Cincinnati history, was told in October her contract would not be renewed because the station is "cutting costs," she says. Earlier this year, Channel 9 cut loose Michael Flannery and Brian Patrick in budget moves.

"I don't know what I want to say about (leaving), except that I've had a good run at Channel 9 news," says Quinlivan, who is in her 40s.

Quinlivan has won two prestigious Peabody Awards, the Alfred duPont Columbia silver baton, the Walter Cronkite Award for Political Reporting, two Society of Professional Journalists Awards for public service, an Investigative Reporters and Editors award and 15 Emmys.

Hired in 1995, her 13 years are the longest of any past or present member of the Channel 9's investigative "I-Team." Channel 9 created the unit after anchor Pat Minarcin's 1987 investigation exposed Donald Harvey as a Drake Hospital serial killer, which also won a Peabody.

Bill Fee, Channel 9 vice president and general manager, declined to comment. "I'm not prepared to give any comment at this point," he says.

For her last two stories, Quinlivan returns to two favorite topics: Over-the-Rhine development (6 p.m. Tuesday) and Dean Gillispie (11 p.m. Wednesday). She says the Dayton-area man was wrongfully convicted for kidnapping and raping three women in 1988.

Quinlivan won a Peabody Award for her one-hour 2001 documentary called "Visions of Vine Street." Her "New Visions of Vine Street" last year won a 2006 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She also won Peabody and duPont awards for her investigation into Paul Brown Stadium construction problems.

Quinlivan has been reporting on Gillispie since 1999, eight years after he went to prison. Recently former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro joined with the University of Cincinnati-based Ohio Innocent Project on the Gillispie case.

"I really wanted to finish up with these two, because they mean so much to me," she says. "I think this is a great way to go out."

Quinlivan lives in Mount Lookout with her daughter, 13, and son, 7 months. The Toledo native and Miami University graduate says she was not concerned about her contract renewal when she returned from maternity leave in August. She moved to Cincinnati almost 13 years ago from Washington D.C. because she wanted to raise her daughter here, and be close to family.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I have a new baby, and great friends here, and a lot of passion for this city," she says. "I'm exploring options. I could leave town and continue investigative reporting, but that’s not my first choice. I like it here."

Also at question is what happens to the I-Team? The website lists only two reporters, Quinlivan and Hagit Limor. Quinlivan says three photographer-producers are assigned to the I-Team: Phil Drexler, Tony Mirones and former sports photographer Sean Dunster.

Will we see more and more short-form "investigations" by anchors Clyde Gray, Brendan Keefe and Bernard Watson? Will another station in town hire her? (She doesn't have a non-compete, she says, so she could jump to another station in January.) Is this the end of an era for the I-Team as we've known it?