Woman's Obscenity-Laced E-Mails Were Not Harassment

[JI7]

<A death penalty opponent who sent e-mails laced with obscenities and references to Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden to a pro-death-penalty Web site was not guilty of a crime, a judge ruled.

Police charged Rachel L. Riffee with misdemeanor electronic harassment after they traced to her two e-mails and three Web site postings sent to a pro-death penalty site run by Frederick A. Romano, the brother of a murder victim.

On Monday, Circuit Judge J. Barry Hughes acquitted Riffee, 34, of Sykesville, Md., ruling that state law protects political speech. He said the Web site invited discussion, and a few e-mails do not constitute a pattern of harassment.

Prosecutor Jennifer L. Darby, who refused to read the communications in the courtroom, said Romano felt threatened by the vicious tone of the e-mails and postings.

But defense attorney Andrew M. Dansicker said Riffee did not know the communications expressing her strong anti-death penalty views would go to Romano himself, any more than someone sending a message to Microsoft would assume "Bill Gates would get it." >


http://www.nylawyer.com/news/05/03/032405n.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. A victory for free speech.

But OTOH, after throwing a lawsuit at her, dragging her through the courts, threatening her with the full weight of the government behind her, she's going to think twice about speaking up, and three time about how she says what she wants to say.

It's all about intimidation.

With shit like this, they win.