Posted on 04/06/2005 10:07:43 AM PDT by lainie
Letter To Editor Criticized Use Of Tasers, Sheriff's Weight
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orange County's sheriff may have broken the law when he used driver's license records to track down a woman who wrote a newspaper to criticize his staff's use of Taser stun guns and described him as too fat for basic police work, critics say.Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary had his aides use the records to get the address of Alice Gawronski so he could send her a scathing letter, which some say violated federal privacy law. It is illegal to access a driver's license database to obtain personal information, except for clear law-enforcement purposes, under the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.
"I recently read your slanderous remarks about the Orange County Sheriff's Office in the Orlando Sentinel," Beary wrote Gawronski on March 23. "It is unfortunate that people ridicule others without arming themselves with the facts before they slander a law enforcement agency or individual."
Gawronski said, "I thought I was exercising my First Amendment right of free speech -- expressing an opinion in an open forum about a paid public official." She considered Beary's letter a form of intimidation.
Violators of the driver's privacy act can be sued in U.S. District Court for damages of at least $2,500, punitive damages, attorney's fees and all other relief the court determines to be appropriate.
"If I were her, I'd sue and get him in front of a jury. He'd probably get laughed out of the courtroom," said Chris Hoofnagle, the senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This is the most common problem with surveillance -- who's watching the watchers."
(Excerpt) Read more at wftv.com ...
Too bad the crime of misusing private information isn't a felony.
Watch out... you might get a letter for posting this!!! :-)
Or is it?
Ha....Ha...Ha...Ha.....is that Lumpy all grown up from "Leave it to Beaver ?????
Orange County: We only look good because Osceola County (armpit of Florida) is next door.
Jeb Bush, call your office! Time to remove this scofflaw from office! Florida governors have this power........He removed the entire Pensacola City council save one.......
He looks like some character..... Woops, I hope I don't get a scathing letter at my door for daring to criticize a public official.
Fat boy, Fat boy
Watcha gonna do?
Watcha gonna do when they come for you
Let me ask Sandy Berger what his opinion is on this.
Well, I'm in California. If he gets MY address and sends me a letter, we'll know he's really up to something!
Yep. Get rid of them, and the sixth borough of NYC (PBC, Broward, Miami-Dade), plus the Tampa Bay area, and FL would be all right.
(sigh) Oh well, I'm up in 'Bama now anyway.
It seems pigs, I mean cops, in FL think they can do anything they want. I'm so sick of them.
Hey Kevin, where's your favorite donut shop?
Why didn't Officer Chubby just say he looked her address up in the phone book?
Nope. Put an apple in that guy's hands and put some cuffed jeans on him and it's Larry Mondello all grown up.
I hear ya. And it is not just Florida. I don't trust most of them.
Looks like Sheriff "Beery" to me!
Does it bug anyone else that this chief local law enforcement officer doesn't know the difference between slander and libel?
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