CRIMINAL CASE: State v. Strom, No. _____ (Va. Cir. Ct. 2009).
Status: Pending.

On July 17, 2009, police arrested and jailed Elisha Strom on charges that the content of her blog, I HeArTE JADE, violates Virginia's law prohibiting publishing personal information, including name and address, of police officers "with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass." Va. Code § 18.2-186.4.

Strom's site contains photographs, names and addresses of members of the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force, known as JADE. On the site, she claims that all the information came from public sources.

Links and Court Documents:
http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/30/hobby-or-harassment-blogger-strom-jailed-for-cop-site/
http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/article/bedford_co._woman_blogs_about_police_then_gets_arrested/42423/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/09/AR2009080902126.html

CRIMINAL SENTENCING: Commonwealth v. Ruzal, No. ____ (Pa. C.P. 2009).
Status: Defendant sentenced to 33 days in jail

Defendant Scott Ruzal was convicted of driving while intoxicated in a March 16, 2009 trial. Before his sentencing, the prosecutor discovered that Ruzal had been sending Twitter messages during his trial commenting on the proceedings, such as “When all else fails, try ignorance. I watched four cops lie on a witness stand today and I didn’t say a word.”

At the May 7 sentencing, the prosecutor argued that the Tweets showed disrespect for law enforcement. Ruzal apologized for the drunken driving, but not for the comments, saying,“That wasn’t anything I said out of disrespect of the court. It was just an expression of a particular sentiment that I was feeling at the time.”

The judge sentenced Ruzal to 33 days in jail.

Links and Case Documents:
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/crime_courts/story/1276320.html

In re Grand Jury Proceedings; Joshua Wolf, No. 06-90064 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 1, 2006)
Status: After being jailed for 226 days for contempt, blogger was released after agreeing to post material on his web site

A protest on July 8, 2005 in San Francisco tied to a meeting of world leaders in Scotland, turned violent, with a police officer assaulted and suffering a fractured skull. There was also an alleged “potential attempted arson” of a San Francisco city police car. Since the police car had been purchased with federal funds, a federal grand jury began investigating whether a federal crime had been committed. During the course of its investigation, federal law enforcement learned that videoblogger and freelance journalist Joshua Wolf had videotaped portions of the protest, and posted portions of his footage on his website and sold a video clip to Indymedia, NBC, and television stations KTVU and KRON. On Feb. 1, 2006, Wolf was served with a grand jury subpoena ordering him to appear before the grand jury with all his footage. Wolf refused, and on Aug. 1, 2006, the District Court for the Northern District of California ordered that he be held in civil contempt and jailed for his refusal to produce the footage that had not already been shown. Wolf appealed the district court’s contempt order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the contempt order on Sept. 8, 2006. Wolf v. U.S., No. 06-16403, 2006 WL 2631398 (9th Cir. Sept. 8, 2006) (O’Scannlain, Graber, Clifton, JJ.). On April 3, 2007, Wolf was released after he agreed to post the video online, thus making it available to prosecutors, as long as he was not required to testify before the grand jury.

Links and Court Documents:
Court documents available at http://www.medialaw.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Hot_Topics/Reporters_Privilege/Wolf/Wolf.htm

Trummel v. Mitchell, No. ______ (Wash. Super. Ct., King County 2002).

Status: Contempt citation reversed

Paul Trummel was sent to jail in February 2002, after he refused to comply with the judge’s order to remove from his website (http://www.contracabal.net) the names and addresses of the administrators of the low-income senior citizens’ residence in Seattle where he had lived ("Council House"). He ended up spending 111 days in jail.
He was released in June 2002 after Judge Doerty revised the order to prohibit Trummel from coming withing 500 feet of Council House.
The Washington intermediate appeals court upheld the order of contempt, but the Washington Supreme Court reversed. Trummel v. Mitchell, 131 P.3d 305 (Wash. March 30, 2006).

Trummel still faces six charges for violating Judge Doerty’s order and failing to appear in court, and there is a warrant for his arrest. His whereabouts are unknown, even to his attorney, but he is apparently reachable by e-mail and was still updating his websites in early April 2006.

Links and Court Documents:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3659307/

http://www.politechbot.com/2006/04/04/washington-supreme-court/

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CRIMINAL CASE: Ohio v. Ellison, No. C/07/CRB/33168 (Ohio Muni. Ct., Hamilton County guilty verdict Nov. 16, 2007)
Status: Guilty verdict reversed, 178 Ohio App.3d 734, 900 N.E.2d 228, 2008-Ohio- 5282 (Ohio App., 1 Dist. Oct. 10, 2008).

Ripley C. Ellison and Savannah Gerhard were friends in junior high school until Ellison’s younger brother accused Gerhard of molesting him; an investigation found insufficient evidence to substantiate the claim. In 2007, while Ellison and Gerhard were both in high school, Ellison posted a picture of Gerhard to her publically-accessible MySpace page, with the caption, “Molested a little boy.” Ellison removed the picture after Gerhard complained to school authorities, but the case was referred to prosecutors and Ellison was tried for violating Ohio’s criminal telephone harassment statute (Ohio Rev. Code 2917.21(B)) on the grounds that Gerhard said that she felt harassed by the posting. Ellison was convicted in a bench trial, and sentenced to a suspended 180-day jail sentence and one year probation. On appeal, the court held that while the statute is written broadly so that actual, direct communication with a target is not required for conviction, there was no evidence that Ellison had the criminal intent to harass Gerhard. Thus the court reversed and conviction and dismissed the case.

Links and Court Documents:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081011/NEWS0107/810110315Trial court docket: http://www.courtclerk.org/case_summary.asp?sec=history&casenumber=C/07/CRB/33168
Appeals decision: http://www.hamilton-co.org/appealscourt/docs/decisions/C-070875_10102008.pdf

CRIMINAL CASE: Ohio v. Baumgartner, No. CR-05-470184-A (Ohio C.P. Ct., Cuyahoga County indictment Aug. 30, 2005)
Ohio v. DuBois, No. CR-05-470184-B (Ohio C.P. Ct., Cuyahoga County indictment Aug. 30, 2005)
Status: Baumgartner is appealing her conviction; Charges against DuBois dismissed pursuant to plea bargain.

Elsebeth Baumgartner of Oak Harbor, Ohio and Bryan DuBois of Sandusky, Ohio allegedly used their site www.erievoices.com to libel and harass retired Cuyahoga County Judge Richard Markus, who had presided over a libel lawsuit against Baumgartner that ended with a $175,000 verdict against Baumgartner.

During the trial in this case, on criminal charges of intimidation and harassment for the web site postings and other activities, Baumgartner moved to have trial judge Shirley Strickland Saffold removed from the case. Although Saffold refused to recuse herself, Baumgartner continued to argue for recusal. Saffold eventually ordered her jailed for contempt. Baumgartner then presented a note from her doctor that she was not competent to stand trial, and Saffold ordered her admitted to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.

In March 2006 DuBois pleaded guilty to separate charges against him in Ottowa County. As part of the plea bargain, the Cuyahoga County charges were dismissed and DuBois agreed to testify against Baumgartner in her trial.

On June 1, 2006, Baumgartner was again found in contempt and jailed; she was released on Oct. 5. On Oct. 31, 2006, Baumgartner was found guilty of 27 counts of contempt of court, and on Nov. 15 she was found guilty of 15 felony counts of intimidation and retaliation. On Nov. 28, 2006, Baumgartner was fined $2,700 and sentenced to 120 days in jail for the contempt counts, which she is appealing; on Dec. 18, 2006, she was sentenced to eight years in prison for the intimidation and retaliation counts, with the sentence stayed pending appeal. But her bond was revoked in 2008, after Baumgartner filed yet another lawsuit in violation of the conditions of her appeal bond. Baumgartner appealed the bond revocation, but the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed (Baumgartner v. Duffey, 2009-Ohio-1218, 2009 WL 792230 (slip opinion)).

Links and Court Documents:
http://www.citmedialaw.org/state-v-baumgartner
http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/NEWS01/603280303
http://www.wkyc.com/video/player.aspx?aid=14346&sid=38099&bw= (video)
http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050927/NEWS01/509270301/1002
http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051214/NEWS01/512140306/1002
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/060206BaumgartnerJailed.html
http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Greg/0603/20060329_Wed_Greg1.mp3 (audio)
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/100506ReleasedFromJail.html
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061031/NEWS02/610310359
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/116367081364530.xml&coll=2
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061129/NEWS02/611290323/-1/NEWS
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2008/05/10/front/754929.txt

Moore v. O'Bannon, No. _____ (Miss. Cir. Ct., Hines County filed March 2006
Status: Unknown

Jackson, Miss. minister Rev. Ronald K. Moore and his wife sued Valerie O'Bannon, a Jackson native now living in Minnesota, over a web site (which no longer exists) that she launched in January 2006 which claims that she and Moore had a five-month affair. In February, Moore won an order from a Mississippi Chancery Court judge ordering O'Bannon to take down the site, and tried to have her jailed for contempt when she did not do so. But the Chancery judge held that the matter belonged in Circuit Court, and Moore filed suit in that court shortly thereafter.

Links and Court Documents:
http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/archive.php?ac=t&forumid=4052&date=06-20-2006&t=754127-1

In Re: Anderson, Nos. 2004-295,192-GA; 2004-295,193-CA; and 2006-307, 599-CZ (Mich. Probate Ct., Oakland County.
Status: Gag order rescinded

A probate judge presiding over a long-running dispute between Diane Anderson and her brother David Anderson over care of their elderly mother ordered Diane Anderson to take down a web site she was maintaining (www.davidcarlandersonandelderabuse.com), where she commented on the proceedings. Szymanski said that he issued in order in frustration over Anderson’s behavior in court. “She is not willing to accept rulings and she continues to argue,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “I warned her four or five times.”
After Anderson refused to remove the site, Judge David Szymanski ordered her immediately jailed at a morning hearing on Dec. 8, 2008.
After she was held for about an hour, she was returned to Judge Szymanski’s court.
She again refused to remove the site, and was jailed again for another three hours before she was released, pending a hearing on Dec. 11.
On Dec. 10, the site disappeared.
At the Dec. 11 hearing, Judge Szymanski rescinded his order, and said that Anderson could continue posting on her site.

Links and Court Documents:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200881210119
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200881211066