Posted on 09/27/2009 12:49:27 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
Here is the full text of the ACORN complaint against James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Breitbart.com. ACORN is suing for over $3,000,000 plus litigation costs and requesting appropriate punative damages. They demand a jury trial. The complaint asks the court to enter a temporary restraining order, preliminary and permament injunctions requiring the defendants to cease distributing and broadcasting the oral communications intercepted in the Baltimore offices of ACORN in July 2009, and to make their best efforts to prevent others from distributing and broadcasting said communications.
Hannah Giles has launched a legal defense fund. You can donate here.
The MSM might switch if the dems overplay this hand...
Immediate restraining orders and injunctions to bury the videos.
Look for a ban on cameras in the courtroom and a gag order on defendants (no interviews).
With all the evidence bottled up and the "Pimp and Hooker" silenced, drag the trial out into the next decade if possible. By then, the defendants will be forgotten, unemployable, and very broke.
If the civil procedure rules of Md. allow it. But as for a restraining order, that, if granted, could extend no farther than the borders of Md. So far as I know neither NY nor Calif have similar protections against taping so no suits are filed in those places, and the jurisdiction of any Md. court stops at the border. As FoxNew is a cable channel HQed in NYC they can run the tapes forever. The best the judge could do is order Md cable companies not to carry the vids Even in a friendly court environment ACORN is up fecal creek
Race Baltimore MD
One race 641600 98.53%
White 205982 31.63%
Black or African American 418951 64.34%
American Indian and Alaska Native 2097 0.32%
Asian 9985 1.53%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 222 0.03%
Two or more races 9554 1.47% CRIME: CITIES OF 500,000 OR MORE POPULATION: Most Dangerous 5: 1 Detroit, MI 2 Washington, DC 3 Baltimore, MD 4 Memphis, TN 5 Dallas, TX
Can you address this question and answer?
I would wager a bet that if O’Keefe and Giles are found not guilty, there will be riots in Baltimore. On the other hand, if they’re found guilty, conservatives may also “riot,” in whatever form that would take.
Yes, you are correct. Also, although I initially thought that these tapes were clearly illegal, I've read some commentary by Maryland attorneys that leads me to believe that it's NOT a foregone conclusion that ACORN will prevail in their attempt to secure an injunction against the distribution of the MD tapes. Lastly, ACORN and the two employees have virtually NO chance of success with respect to their monetary claims, IMO.
Look for legislation to make it illegal to tape any Democrat support group and to make it mandatory that all Republican support groups be filmed and transcripted by a stenographer.
See OldDeckHand’s response at #29 re: my answer to your question.
DISCOVERY.
IANAL, but let’s explore that possibility.
What sort of discovery pertaining to the alleged illegal interception of private communications would you expect to see that would be damaging to ACORN or the two employees? Discovery wouldn’t provide open ended access into ACORN financial records, would it?
I’m just playing devil’s advocate, so-to-speak, and am not being intentionally adversarial. :)
You don’t know much about the 3rd most corrupt state in the union . ACORN don’t need no stinkin’ license .
No. He seems to be making an argument James is "Party 1" and Hannah is "Party 2". That's not going to fly. In this instance, Hannah and James are of the same party, making it impossible for them to give the legally required two-party consent.
The reason the tapes may not be illegal is because the ACORN employees' "reasonable expectation of privacy" may be mitigated by the fact they door is wide open with people immediately outside the room - clearly within earshot as other voices can be heard on the audio portion of the tape - and the fact the employees are "recording" the conversation through their own notes, which they can be seen making on the tape itself. If they are indeed "recording" the conversation themselves, it nullifies their argument that there wasn't two-party consent.
If the court doesn't find these arguments compelling, it then becomes much more problematic for the defense. All the other aspects to the incident certainly lend themselves to the argument that the taping was done illegally, at least under Maryland law.
hehe :)
It certainly should, considering ACORN receives hundreds of million of tax dollars. It would also potentially open up the role of government officials working for ACORN.
The shredding machines are running 24/7 I imagine.
I would think James and Hannah could move easily....although, you’re right...having their addresses published is not good.
Well at least they have shifted the debate to the rightness or wrongness or rather legality or illegality of what Hannah and James did and AWAY from what the Acorn employees and Acorn itself was doing. Now we are talking about this. Could they counter-sue or something? Is there any offense position rather than being constantly on defense once again?
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.