Posted on 12/23/2017 1:07:44 PM PST by iowamark
A crime blogger in Texas has been hit with felony charges by police, who accuse her of publishing information before it's publicly available, the Laredo Morning Times reports. According to the Washington Post, 32-year-old Priscilla Villarreal—who goes by Lagordiloca, or the fat crazy lady—is a popular figure in Laredo, where she livestreams from crime scenes on her Facebook page, which has 84,000 followers. But she says local police are fed up with her. And on Dec. 13 Villarreal was arrested and charged with two counts of misuse of official information. She says it's a "personal vendetta." The charges stem from the suicide earlier this year of a US Customs and Border Protection employee. Villarreal had the employee's name before police made it public.
Texas law says people can be charged with misuse of official information if they receive it "with intent to obtain a benefit" from it, Texas Monthly reports. Police say in Villarreal's case, that benefit was Facebook popularity. Her lawyer says that should scare all news outlets, where whoever gets the scoop "gets the most readers, or ‘likes,’ or whatever." Legal experts believe the case against Villarreal won't succeed. The name of a government employee who killed themselves is public record, and as one expert notes, it's not Villarreal's "duty to keep that information secret." Meanwhile, the Laredo Police Department has gone after who it believes is Villarreal's source: Officer Barbara Goodman. An affidavit found Goodman and Villarreal spoke on the phone more than 500 times between January and July. Goodman has been put on administrative reassignment during an investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at newser.com ...
Not cool.
Not sure I think she should be arrested for it but still... not cool.
Sounds like she has a ticket to the lawsuit lottery.
If she got the name on her own, then the cops have no say over it.
This is exactly the kind of speech, the kind the government thinks it has a monopoly on, that the First Amendment is intended to protect.
This law will not stand constitutional muster.
This is blatantly unconstitutional and a gross abuse of power. (Unless there is more to the story.)
It is not about legal or illegal but about being civilized.
Should she have been arrested? Probably not.
Except the source is an Officer with the Laredo Police.
So they have some say as to what their employees do.
snip
Meanwhile, the Laredo Police Department has gone after who it
believes is Villarreal’s source: Officer Barbara Goodman. An
affidavit found Goodman and Villarreal spoke on the phone more
than 500 times between January and July. Goodman has been put
on administrative reassignment during an investigation.
Texas ping!
Yeah...NO. First amendment. Keep your people’s mouths shut if you need secrecy
You got it.
“Not sure I think she should be arrested for it but still... not cool.”
Wasn’t it one of the Founding Fathers that said something about how our Constituion will only work for a moral and just nation? Heck - even just being polite would work for me.
I agree with being concerned with government abuse BUT release of criminal investigation information before it is released can get someone killed.
not cool if the family hadn’t yet been notified.
There is a concept floating around today that, "If there is not a law against it, then it is ok."
There are a lot of things that are not illegal and should not be illegal but they still are not done by civilized people.
Telling the world that someone has died tragically before being sure that the family has been informed is one of those things.
That is correct.
Freedom of the press. False imprisonment. She and her lawyer are going to own the supervisor who issued that order. She has every right to publish whatever she finds out. Sure, not cool she posted the dead person’s name before the family was notified but that’s not an arrestable offense.
Now, the officer who leaked the info can be fired with no repercussions.
So if your loved one were killed, you are saying you have no problem learning about it on the news? Since death notifications by police are probably the most dreaded task they claim to have to do, I’m sure they will be glad to no longer care about having to do that task.
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