Posted on 09/24/2009 3:03:57 PM PDT by holy joe
ACORN has announced its lawsuit against filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, and columnist Andrew Breitbart for what it alleges was "illegal videotaping" of ACORN employees in Baltimore. So the head of the group has gone from blasting the filmmakers, then praising them for helping ACORN uncover corruption, to now, suing them.
The suit was filed in the Circuit Court in Baltimore where sympathetic juries are available. In addition, ACORN wants preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop any other pesky videotapes from coming out. It also is seeking damages that could be as high as $7 million.
The video shows now-fired ACORN employees giving tax advice to O'Keefe and Giles, who are posing, as their minimal costume budget will allow, as a pimp and a prostitute.
ACORN has a dream team of four major mouthpieces: Andy Freeman, A. Dwight Pettit, Arthur Schwartz, and C. Justin Brown.
The group and their attorneys are going to regret filing this lawsuit.
So far, ACORN employees have been featured on videos assisting criminal behavior in three other states and Washington, D.C. This suit, by necessity, is only for the Maryland recordings.
ACORN is going to try to nail the defendants on Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code sections 10-402(a) and 10-410, which require two-party consent to all electronic surveillance.
But the suit will open ACORN up to cross-complaints and a broad discovery process that will include the production of e-mails, correspondence, memos and internal documents, as well as depositions of employees. Haven’t these people ever heard of Whitewater and Ken Starr?
O’Keefe and company will have a powerful procedural move to make...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Who said anyone in ACORN was smart?
As I stated in an earlier post, ACORN is so stupid that if they filed a suit, the discovery process would destroy them - well, folks, here we go! Everybody raise your right hand and waive Good Bye to ACORN!
I believe, though I could be wrong, that video is not the same as voice recording. One can be illegal while the other is not.
got it......but HOW ELSE DOES ONE GET INFO ON PEOPLE CONSIRING TO COMMIT CRIMES???
This has got to be a bluff by ACORN. They will drop the suit before they give up any damaging info.
It's all about "reasonable expectation of privacy". Also, even under the MD statute (which is one of the only two-party statutes in the country), the video in and of itself, is not illegal, it's only the accompanying audio that makes the tape illegal.
That they will “regret” their decision to file suit only holds true IF the Federal Courts continue to wear the blinders of justice and impartiality. We already KNOW that is unlikely, as Bush 41’s appointees were hardly Conservitives as a general rule, and Clinton’s certainly weren’t. Bush 43 didn’t have a much better record, because those who were Conservative were stonewalled by the Democrats for years, and they are now PACKING the courts with THEIR liberofascist, activist appointees under Obama.
Soon, there will be no hope of obtaining justice from the Federal courts on cases such as this.... Don’t hold your breath. Don’t get your hopes up.
A few days ago when Congress voted to “defund” and investigate ACORN, some here were rejoicing at their demise. I said then and I will say again, I will believe ACORN is dead when I heave the last shovel full of dirt over their grave. It ain’t happened yet, and they and their congressional allies (Conyers, Frank, et. al)aren’t going down without a fight....
Sounds like they filed the suit to tie it up in court ad infinitum so no more videos can be aired. Isn’t that how it works? Once it’s filed the videos become “evidence” and therefore can;t be aired?
maybe Bob Barr would like to jump in!
;-)
he likes attention..
None of these document will ever get to court. You can be sure of that. Don't forget, we are now under communists rule with King Obama as the head dictator.
Also wants to prevent more tapes from being released. Color me surprised.
Those don’t have audio. It’s by the audio that the law was broken.
They need a legal defense fund.
No wonder even Barney Frank reversed himself and turned on ACORN. He must have seen that they were going to do something this stupid. Now even the biggest, safest rats are abandoning ship.
I wonder how much trouble all of this will bring the banking queen.
I can’t wait for the depositions. I wonder if Obama wants his subpoena now or later?
Yeah and they still do it! :-)
TTIUWOPOHG
The good guys will LOSE the trial if it’s in Maryland. It’ll be filled with a black jury and that’ll be that.
I just hope they can appeal to something else, but the country is so insane now, who knows.
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