Posted on 10/24/2008 5:54:27 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal Friday, October 24, 2008 8:41 PM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch "State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama.
The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.
Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said.
Isaac Baker, Obama's Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay's statement as "desperate charges." "Invasions of privacy should not be tolerated. If these records were accessed inappropriately, it had nothing to do with our campaign and should be investigated fully," he said.
BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.
"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.
Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.
Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.
On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.
Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.
The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.
The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.
Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.
Ohio Gestapo ping!
Ohio? Nothing is going to come of this whether government computers were used or not. Brunner runs that state with the help of her “courts.”
bttt
Well well well. The Nazi Digital Brown Shirts are tearing this nation apart. Now it’s the democrats offices that are doing it. They have no shame in their quest to spread their fascism in this country
“Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver’s license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.”
Great Pic! We need to photoshop obama’s face into that poster.
Don’t know about OH but in the state of CA, it is a violation of the state penal code (criminal offense) to obtain information from DMV records and use such information for any reason(s) other than official business.
Come on, Joe. Sue the crap out of them. I’m sure there’s a conservative lawyer in Toledo who’s chomping at the bits to take on Brunner. Then use part of your millions to run for Congress. Or, take it all and move it off shore before Obama can get hold of it.
I agree with you, he should sue the cr@p out of them!
Force discovery of government records of exactly WHO accessed his information... believe me.. there will be a trail.
Then file criminal charges against those who used private government records to harass a citizen.
I hope an attorney steps forward to help Joe bring the scum down.
THIS is the type of scum Obama will push forward.
Time to oust the Attorney General and the Secretary of State. I know the AG is up for reelection so she needs to be shown the door.
""... and when I get there you better have the answer punk."
Nope, no bias here. Wurzelbacher isn’t a part of the political lexicon because McCain is talking about him, it’s because ol’ Joe managed to expose 0bama’s socialism. These guys can’t bring themselves to admit this, because they refuse to be honest about 0bama.
No kidding! These Marxists need to be prosecuted and jailed!
Now this is good info.
Great post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.