Posted on 01/21/2010 6:43:00 PM PST by CJBernard
Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe III, the independent filmmakers behind the series of videos which swept the nation in 2009 and exposed internal corruption and illegality within ACORN Housing Corporation, were sued today in federal court in Philadelphia by an ACORN employee featured in one of the pair’s films.
The plaintiff is Katherine Conway-Russell, a Philadelphia resident who has worked for ACORN since March 2008 as an office director. It was Conway-Russell who met with Giles and O’Keefe, posing as a prostitute and pimp as they had in ACORN offices nationwide during other installments of the undercover video series, for a private interview in her office at ACORN’s facility in Philadelphia on July 24, 2009. This is the first such suit filed against the filmmakers by an individual ACORN employee.
The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claims that the Giles and O’Keefe “purportedly sought information regarding housing and mortgage opportunities in Philadelphia, but were in reality imposters who deliberately and surreptitiously created video and audio recordings in an attempt to discredit plaintiff Conway-Russell and ACORN Housing Corporation,” and that they subsequently “disseminated the illegally obtained recordings in a manner calculated to harm and injure” Katherine Conway-Russell.
Conway-Russell alleges that the actions of Giles and O’Keefe ran afoul of Pennsylvania Law and, indeed, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania all parties to a conversation must be aware of and consent to any recording. According to 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5703, it is a felony of the third degree to intentionally intercept, endeavor to intercept, or get any other person to intercept any wire, electronic, or oral communication without the consent of all the parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at americasright.com ...
I think you managed to do that all by yourself, Kathy.
Hope Giles and O'Keefe beat this case.
This is a cause well worth donating to. Address?
So is it more illegal to record illegalities, or be responsible for giving out information that leads to and supports criminal behavior???
I’m confused...
You cannot claim (or successfully prove in a court of law) the ACORN office personnel were coerced into providing the counsel or advise on how to get away with setting up a “shop” for illegal activity...They gave it without any reservation, and matter of fact they helped to formulate the process to actually get this done...So they went above and beyond what was being asked...
The fact they were recorded is a moot point except in the states that have a notification of recording statutes in their civil law codes...And even that can be defended, or pled down, based upon the content of the recording...
It may, at most be thrown out (recording), ok, but the other states data has already exposed a prevalent tendency for ACORN employees and volunteers complicite in advising citizens to break the law...
If you are standing in a balcony and you are recording an assault in progress, and that assault results in a murder...Do you think for one second that that tape or recording cannot be used to prosecute that crime???
Oh wait, I forgot to ask the murderer if it was ok to tape them committing this crime...
Toss this lawsuit, and ACORN needs topay the legal fees for our two journalists...
Bump
The kids are safe, and the exposure will further damage the ACORN goons.
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