Review-Journal investigative reporter wins top Texas award
Las Vegas Review-Journal Investigative Reporter Anita Hassan won the prestigious Charles E. Green Star Award for Investigative Report of the Year from the Headliners Foundation of Texas for a series she wrote last year about a serial rapist in Houston who avoided prosecution for nearly a decade.
The series, “Serial Indifference,” published in April 2017 by the Houston Chronicle, vividly documented how authorities repeatedly failed to bring a convicted sex offender to justice.
Earlier this month, the four-part series won first place for the 2017 Star Investigative Report of the Year from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors for the large newspaper category in Texas.
“Exhaustively and empathetically reported, through sources, records and shoe leather; a gripping, infuriating narrative; AND it got utterly immediate public-policy results — this from Anita Hassan is truly top-tier investigative work,” wrote contest judge Michael Kruse, a senior staff writer for Politico and Politico Magazine.
Hassan joined the Review-Journal’s investigative team in August 2017 after more than a decade at the Chronicle. Her award-winning reporting has focused primarily on criminal justice and public safety issues. In Houston, she wrote about the city’s massive backlog of untested rape kits, county jail abuses and corruption in a state program for sex offenders.
“We’re incredibly proud that Anita has been recognized by this important award,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said Thursday. “Her work on the project was a big reason why she was recruited to join the Review-Journal’s investigative team. She’s already producing award-winning work for our Southern Nevada readers, and her most impactful work is yet to come.”
Prior to joining the Chronicle’s investigative team, Hassan worked as the newspaper’s police and general assignment reporter. In 2015, Hassan was awarded a journalist fellowship at Loyola Law School.
Contact Brian Joseph at bjoseph@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5208. Follow @bjoseph1 on Twitter.