Clerk Charged with Misconduct for Unlawfully Accessing Information on 'Joe the Plumber'

elections.foxnews.com ^ | October 29, 2008 | Cristina Corbin

[Publius804]

Clerk Charged with Misconduct for Unlawfully Accessing Information on 'Joe the Plumber' A records clerk in Ohio has come under fire for accessing information on "Joe the Plumber" through a statewide database.

Cristina Corbin

FOXNews.com

A records clerk in Ohio has been charged with gross misconduct after she allegedly used a state database to access information on the man famously known as "Joe the Plumber," the Toledo police department confirmed to FOXNews.com.

Julie McConnell, a long-time records clerk with the department's investigative services bureau, allegedly used the database -- called the Law Enforcement Automated Data System or LEADS -- to access information on Joe Wurzelbacher.

Wurzelbacher, a 34-year-old Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business, rose to political fame after questioning Barack Obama on his "spreading the wealth" remarks during an Oct. 12 rally in Holland, Ohio. He has since become a symbol for John McCain's campaign, which says Obama proposes to raise taxes on small businesses.

McConnell used the LEADS database to confirm Wurzelbacher's address at the request of a local television reporter, Toledo police Chief Mike Navarre told FOXNews.com.

"You can't use that database unless it was for law enforcement purposes," Navarre said.

[Doogle]

...at the request of a local television reporter,

..some reporter eh?...there must be thousands of Wurzelbacher's running around Toledo, probably hundreds of Samuels...."I know, I'll ask my police insider to do a trace, that should take days off my search for his address" soooommmmme reporter. I'm not buying the request bit...this was purely political harassment and they should sue!

[Jacquerie]

A disciplinary hearing is being scheduled for McConnell. "The level of discipline has not been determined yet,"

Since she purposely violated the law, I suspect this 13 year employee is confident that her union will make sure little comes of it.

[freekitty]

Uh, how about fired. They fire people for accessing records that are private.

[Balding_Eagle]

Not sure that she personally would have to benefit from this.

Then make her prove it!

Depose her, subpoena her bank records, sue her civilly in court.

[Nonperson]

I did a google on ["Julie McConnel" Toledo] and this is what I come up with.

Guilty or NOT guilty?

[Nonperson]

Make that McConnell.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

This pos should be in jail. If anyone had looked up info on obama and didn’t have built-in protection, he would be in jail.

[Aliska]

That's reassuring. Still a supervisor or upper level could access (hundreds of them). But I really appreciate your input knowing there are some controls in place.

I still wonder about other databases; I don't have a whole lot of confidence that it doesn't happen fairly often. Once I had access to some information from multiple banks. It never occurred to me to look up anybody during that time or misuse it in any way.

It's strange, I was laid off and watched while I packed up my stuff and accompanied to the door. Before that, I sometimes worked all night alone by myself, could have done anything but never did or would.

Some time later they paid me a consultant fee to come back in find a bug, and fix a payroll program which I did. Then they offered me a job back, but I decided not to after my current boss advised me if they did it to me once, they would do it again. I think they finally folded or relocated, so it's just as well.

I had a security clearance and access to other sensitive information, it was a huge matter of honor never to divulge it, can't imagine doing it for any sum of money. That's the way a lot of people used to be; they took it that seriously. Anybody who violated the ethical code was treated as you said.