10-24-2009 National:
NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey blogger accused of threatening lawmakers and judges in two states is free on $500,000 bond.
Hal Turner lit a cigar as he walked out of the federal courthouse in Newark on Oct. 21. The 47-year-old waved away a reporter and photographer because he’s under strict orders not to talk to the news media.
A federal judge also ordered Turner not to use a computer or any device that can access the Internet.
Turner was arrested at his North Bergen home in June after authorities said he posted threats against Connecticut legislators and wrote that three federal judges in Illinois deserved to die.
Turner’s release came after U.S. District Judge Donald Walter ruled last month that Turner could be freed under “strict conditions,” which included the news-media and Internet restrictions, The National Journal reported last month. Turner is also subject to home confinement and electronic monitoring.
Walter, a visiting judge from Louisiana who was assigned to the Illinois case, also agreed last month to move Turner’s case from Chicago to Brooklyn, N.Y. Holding Turner’s trial somewhere other than Chicago “would best serve not only justice but the appearance of justice,” Walter said.
Turner was charged in Illinois with making a death threat against three 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges after saying in Internet postings in June that the judges “deserve to be killed” because they had refused to overturn handgun bans in Chicago and suburban Oak Park. Turner also had said on his Web site that the judges’ blood would “water the tree of liberty.”
The postings included the photos and work addresses of the judges, along with a picture of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in downtown Chicago and notations indicating the placement of “anti-truck bomb barriers.”
The postings also referred to the February 2005 slayings of the mother and husband of Chicago-based federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.
In moving the trial to Brooklyn, Walter noted the “widespread media coverage” of those slayings.
Turner’s attorneys have said he merely gave his opinion, which was protected free speech. ..Source.. by First Amendment Center
Blogger charged with threatening judges free on bail
10-22-2009 New Jersey:
Internet blogger and talk show host Harold "Hal" Turner, jailed as a danger to the community after his June arrest by the FBI, was freed on bail Wednesday pending trial on charges of threatening the lives of federal judges in Chicago.
After 119 days in federal custody, Turner, 47, of North Bergen, walked out of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Court House in Newark shortly after 1 p.m., under strict orders to refrain from discussing his case with the media and barring him from using a computer or any other device to access the Internet.
Waving a reporter and photographer away, Turner lit up a cigar as left the court complex.
Turner, who gained notoriety for controversial statements that endeared him to white supremacists, was arrested at his home June 24 for declaring in an online posting that three federal appeals court judges "deserve to be killed" for a June 2 ruling that upheld laws banning handguns in Chicago and a nearby suburb.
Turner provided the names, work addresses, phone numbers and photos of the judges in a follow-up post the next day.
During hearings in Chicago in July, Turner's lawyers disclosed — and federal prosecutors confirmed — that Tuner had worked on and off for several years as an informant for the FBI, passing along tips about violent threats against individuals and elected officials, including President Obama.
Prosecutors downplayed his role and a grand jury indicted him July 22 on a single count of threatening "to assault and murder" the three judges in retaliation for their ruling.
In September, U.S. District Judge Donald Walter, who sits in Louisiana, approved Turner's release under strict conditions that include a prohibition on his speaking to the media, home confinement, the Internet ban and electronic monitoring,
Walter also agreed to transfer the case from Chicago, where a federal judge's mother and husband were murdered in 2005, to Brooklyn for a Nov. 30 trial. Turner was later moved to the Hudson County Jail pending the posting of a $500,000 bond.
Newark attorney Michael A. Orozco, who represents Turner, declined to comment on the case.
Orozco has argued that Turner's speech was protected by the First Amendment, but the judge denied his motions to dismiss the indictment earlier this month, noting the right to free speech is not absolute. ..Source.. by PETER J. SAMPSON
October 24, 2009
Blogger accused of threatening 7th Circuit judges is free on bail
August 31, 2009
Another blogger about to be outed?
8-31-2009 Canada:
OTTAWA -- A petty online insult turned the spotlight on anonymous bloggers in the United States. Now, a Winnipeg lawyer is leading the fight in a similar case in Canada.
But while the U.S. case involved a model versus a wannabe fashion socialite, the Canadian case connects two Ottawa politicians including the city's controversial mayor, Larry O'Brien.
It could have ramifications for the dozens, if not hundreds, of anonymous critics who pass judgment, and often libelous accusations, against everyone from politicians to celebrities to journalists.
On Aug. 19, a New York state court ordered Google to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger using Google's Blogger forum to spew what the court said were libelous comments against a model.
On Friday, Ottawa media reported that a Winnipeg lawyer, Brian Bowman, is asking Google to take down the site zeromeanszero.blogspot.com or unmask its author.
The site is a non-stop attack against O'Brien, Ottawa city councillors, the media and occasionally other politicians.
Bowman, an expert in privacy law, says he's representing a client who has been the subject of untrue statements on the blog. Bowman says the blogger has accused his client of doing things even when his client was not in town.
Ironically, Bowman won't reveal the identity of his client, except to say it's not O'Brien.
So far, the case hasn't gone to court. Bowman is negotiating with Google. But unless Google volunteers to shut down the blog or outs the name of the writer, it's likely it will be put before a judge.
Which could begin to answer one of the biggest privacy-related questions in the Internet age: Does freedom of speech allow someone to libel someone anonymously?
How can you stop it if you don't know who is doing it?
It is cowardly in the biggest sense of the word to criticize someone or insult them while hiding behind the veil of anonymity.
I am obviously a firm believer in freedom of speech, and truth is always a winning defence against accusations of libel. But freedom of speech does not, in my opinion, include the freedom to anonymously libel someone.
The Internet should not be a tool to allow anybody to say what they want about anybody, smearing reputations and even ruining careers, without the responsibility of having to out your identity.
And yes, you can put my name on that.
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Manitoba got a lot of national airtime last week, an unusual occurrence for a province that is often overlooked.
Premier Gary Doer's sudden resignation and subsequent appointment as ambassador to the U.S. was the biggest news of the week.
Unfortunately, the other story that made national headlines was far more sinister and is the subject of a national epidemic: missing and murdered aboriginal women. More than 75 in Manitoba alone in the last few decades; and more than 500 nationwide.
After two more young women were found dead in the city in less than a month, Justice Minister Dave Chomiak announced a new task force to delve into at least 30 unsolved cases, some of which go back to the 1960s.
While that was going on, Manitoba Liberal MP Anita Neville was meeting with experts in Washington, D.C., hoping to get the issue some international help. Neville said she feels strongly there is a connection between human trafficking and the dozens of women that disappear and die violently in Canada, and she fears Canada is far behind when it comes to getting an understanding of it.
"I was looking to see what is being done and what the gaps are here," she said. "I want to know what we can learn from it."
She is demanding a comprehensive national strategy on human trafficking.
Imagine if police in every province banded together to look for links in these hundreds of cases?
Ask yourself how quickly that might have happened had more than 500 white women gone missing in Canada in the last 30 years. Or what might have been the reaction if two teenagers from the Winnipeg suburbs showed up dead in less than a month.
Neville said she is still piecing together what she learned in Washington and has a commitment from Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to include it in the party platform in the next election.
With another Manitoba MP, Conservative Joy Smith, making human trafficking her raison d'être, now the task force and Neville, maybe this issue is finally getting the kind of attention it deserves. ..Source.. by Mia Rabson
