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posted by martyb on Sunday August 28 2016, @01:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the wheels-of-justice dept.

https://theintercept.com/2016/08/26/sheriffs-raid-to-find-blogger-who-criticized-him-was-unconstitutional-court-rules/

An appellate court in Baton Rouge ruled Thursday that a raid on a police officer's house in search of the blogger who had accused the sheriff of corruption was unconstitutional. The Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals argued that Sheriff Jerry Larpenter's investigation into the blog ExposeDAT had flawed rationale: the alleged defamation was not actually a crime as applied to a public official.

The unanimous ruling from the three-judge panel comes after police officer Wayne Anderson and his wife Jennifer Anderson were denied assistance in local and federal court. "I love it when justice is tangible," Jerri Smitko, one of the Andersons' laywers, told The Intercept. "With that piece of paper it says that what they did was unconstitutional — that's a great feeling because you're holding it in your hand and it's vindication for people that they intended to oppress," she added.

The raid was sparked by the sheriff's investigation into who was behind the anonymous blog that accused local officials, including him, of corruption and fraud. Through a blog and a Facebook page called "John Turner," ExposeDAT used public records to show conflicts of interest. The sheriff sought warrants when Tony Alford, a local business owner, filed a criminal complaint about the blog. On August 2, Larpenter and his deputies raided the Andersons' house after they traced the IP address of the John Turner Facebook page through a warrant to AT&T. The information AT&T provided, according to an affidavit, gave the sheriff an address and a name: Wayne Anderson. The court found that the raid on the Andersons' house was unjustified.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @07:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @07:23PM (#394303)

    I think officers need to serve jail time when they knowingly violate the rights of a citizen:

    § ?: Aggravated Deprivation of Rights

    An individual commits the crime of aggravated deprivation of rights when he or she, under color of law, rule, ordinance, regulation, executive order, warrant application, etc. acts to illegally deprive an individual of his or her civil rights, when he or she knew or should have known that such actions would illegally deprive such individual of his or her civil rights. The defenses of qualified immunity, respondent superiour immunity, and sovereign immunity shall not be available in a prosecution under this section.

    This crime is punjshable as a felony, and on conviction thereof, an individual shall be subject to immediate disqualification of eligibility to hold any office in law enforcement for 10 years, if applicable immediate removal from such office, and shall be impirsoned for not less than 6 months, nor more than 5 years.

    § ?: Simple Deprivation of Rights

    An individual commits the crime of simple deprivation of rights when he or she, under color of law, rule, ordinance, regulation, executive order, warrant application, etc. acts to illegally deprive an individual of his or her civil rights. The defenses of qualified immunity, respondent superiour immunity, and sovereign immunity shall not be available in a prosecution under this section.

    This crime is punishable as a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, an individual shall be fined not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, and shall be ordered to complete additional training on civil rights.