Posted on 10/14/2009 12:42:21 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Former police association contractor charged with snooping on 'Joe the Plumber' Wednesday, October 14, 2009 11:42 AM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch
A former contractor for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police has been charged with rummaging through state computers to retrieve confidential information about "Joe the Plumber."
Brett A. Gerke, 52, of 2329 Woodcreek Place on the Far North Side, is charged with attempted unauthorized use of property.
Gerke entered a diversion program on Oct. 2, which typically results in the dismissal of a criminal charge. He has not entered a plea. The charge is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.
The State Highway Patrol says that Gerke used a law-enforcement computer network on Oct. 16, 2008 to access personal information about Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.
The Toledo-area resident was popularized as "Joe the Plumber" by Republican John McCain in a presidential debate the night before with Democrat Barack Obama.
Gerke was project manager in the development of the Ohio Local Law Enforcement Information Sharing Network, working on the project between 2004 and 2008 as a contractor for the police chiefs' association.
Gerke used a test account and password he received to work on the project to search for information on Wurzelbacher and others, authorities say.
He was working as a contractor for the Ohio Department of Insurance at the time of the computer checks. Gerke's lawyer, Joseph Scott of Columbus, would not comment on the case.
The Dispatch revealed several questionable checks of state computer systems for confidential information about Wurzelbacher after the presidential debate.
Helen Jones-Kelley, then director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, authorized several computer checks on Wurzelbacher that the state inspector general concluded had no legal purpose.
Jones-Kelley, who was suspended by Gov. Ted Strickland after The Dispatch also revealed that she used her state e-mail account to raise campaign funds for Obama, later resigned. Two of her top aides also lost their jobs.
Wurzelbacher has filed a federal lawsuit against Jones-Kelley and her two former aides seeking damages for violation of his privacy. The former state employees deny any wrongdoing.
Just imagine what Obamah’s Comrades in the FBI, CIA & State Dept are doing!
Obama thug spies on ordinary citizens-—just beyond contempt.
So now they call Worthington the “Far North Side?”
One saving grace of the State Department is that they couldn't find their bare asses in the dark with both hands because their hiring system is so effective in screening out anyone who doesn't fit their mold.
To the Clintonville and Gerbil Village crowds, it probably is. My definition of the "Far North Side" is the intersection of Powell Rd and US-23.
Somebody put this guy up to this spying on a private cirizen, can’t Joe sue this sucker until he squeals?
Glad to see pursuit of criminal activity via investigations, resignations, firings and hopefully charges filed. In days gone by in our former Republic, accessing databases on LE computers for “fishing expeditions” carried a heavy penalty when not for official purposes. We’ll see how this pans out.
just being a good lil’ union stooge.
Obama holds a grudge worse than the Clintons ever did.
There are millions of these little liberals who use their access to sensitive information to get something on normal people that they can use against them when the need arises.
You are 100% correct....and the little bastards are everywhere too! A few of them should be hung by their thumbs and all of this kind of stuff might stop. I don’t ever trust anybody who uses two last names anyway, because that is telling me they are uber-liberals, and most likely evil too.
“Obama holds a grudge worse than the Clintons ever did.”
That is saying a lot.
On a side note - some cultures use two last names and some of them are conservative.
Heinz-Kerry? :@D
...and some are not conservative, lol.
Isn’t that the outfit that distributed the 'Right-Wing Extremism' Report?
What outfit did that?
DHS I think. And then wasn’t there was some kind of underreported “apology”?
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