A Fox News reporter who could be ordered to jail if she does not reveal her sources for a story about the Aurora theater shooting has filed an affidavit pleading with the judge in the case to cancel her subpoena.

In the affidavit, filed Tuesday, reporter Jana Winter writes that she has suffered panic attacks and nightmares as a result of the subpoena. She writes that she has received harassing phone calls from supporters of theater shooting suspect James Holmes and that she’s been afraid to live in her house. And she writes that she had to abandon reporting on “a high profile national security investigation” and “allegations of serious misconduct by senior officials” because sources will no longer talk to her.

“I am suffering greatly,” Winter writes in the affidavit. “My career is being diminished beyond recognition, and freedom of speech is dying a slow death for every day that the heavy weight of this subpoena presses down on me.”

“I do not scare easily,” she writes in another part of the affidavit, “and this is the first time in my life that I have been paralyzed with fear.”

Attorneys for Holmes are trying to put Winter on the witness stand to find out who leaked information to her about the notebook Holmes mailed to his University of Colorado psychiatrist just hours before the shooting occurred. Winter reported in July that the notebook — the contents of which have never been publicly disclosed — contains violent drawings and details of a murderous plot. Winter said she got the information from “a law enforcement source.”

Holmes’ lawyers say the disclosure violated the gag order in the case. Because the only known investigators who had direct access to the notebook have denied leaking the information, Holmes’ lawyers also say that finding out the true source will determine whether any of those investigators committed perjury in saying they weren’t the source.

If Judge Carlos Samour orders Winter to reveal her sources and she refuses, Samour has previously suggested that Winter could face six months in jail.

Winter had been expected to next appear in court on Sept. 30, after Samour postponed a hearing scheduled for Aug. 19 so that doctors at the state Mental Health Institute could have more time to evaluate Holmes.

But, in a separate filing, Winter’s lawyers refused to agree to the postponement. Instead, they said Samour must postpone Winter’s subpoena in person, even though they argued that making the New York-based Winter travel to Colorado court appearances is “an undue hardship.”

Holmes’ attorneys would have to pay Winter’s travel costs for the extra appearance. But Winter’s attorneys argued that Samour should just drop the matter because, they contend, Holmes’ lawyers will not be able to overcome Winter’s limited legal protections as a journalist.

Winter has also appealed the approval of her subpoena in New York court.

“Justice and judicial economy call for this matter to be closed now, not later,” Winter’s attorneys write.

Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others with gunfire in the attack on the Century Aurora 16 movie theater, one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a plea that prompted Samour to say prosecutors should be able to have access to the notebook for the first time. It is still unclear, though, whether the notebook will be allowed to be used as evidence at Holmes’ trial, which is scheduled to start in February.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold