Found
this story in Newsday, NY and
AP.
A couple sues two local officials claiming Councilman Bernard Guenther and former Councilman David Scapicchio were not entitled to medical and dental benefits in Mount Olive, New Jersey. The couple, Scott and Charlene Uhrmann, want the two politicians to return the benefits money to the township. Why do the Uhrmanns now have to turn their computer hard drive to the politicians' lawyer?
The lawyer for these concilmen, Ronald Heymann, decides to go to the district court and get and order for the Uhrmann's computer hard drive. The reason? Anonymous messages in some internet message boards containing criticisms of the politicians may have been authored by the Urhmanns. Get it?
So this is plain and simple a retaliatory tactic by the defendants. That a judge went along with it shows how troublesome this whole situation is.
It will be much easier to find irrelevant and private information in the couple's computer than a trace of the alleged messages they may have posted. If you want to trace messages posted, you are better off going to the couple's ISP or to the message board's log file. And you bet that in a case like this no ISP or message board provider would be ordered to do so by a court with the appropriate jurisdiction.
Fortunately the ACLU and Public Citizen are taking this case and will certainly give the politicians and their lawyer a good run for their money.