The Law Should Never Be Secret, So Why Will CISPA Debate Be Secret?

Teri Buhl -- 'Jurno,' Private Tweeter And Lawsuit Enthusiast -- Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail For Harassment

from the cue-angry-email/comment-in-3... dept

Tue, Apr 9th 2013 7:57pm — Tim Cushing

This is most likely the last Teri Buhl update, but it is with a small amount of schadenfreude that I point your attention to this news item from the New Canaan Journal.

Teri Buhl, who was found guilty on misdemeanor charges of harassment and breach of peace, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, one-year probation and a strict order not to interact with the victims' family, in Norwalk Superior Court today.

The New Canaan woman was accused of harassing her then-boyfriend's daughter by posting parts of the girl's private journals online in 2010. Buhl, 40, was acquitted of interfering with a police investigation.

It has been rather quiet on the Buhl front for the past couple of months and the threatened lawsuits (of which there were several -- ranging from claims of defamation to supposed copyright infringement) have failed to materialize. Buhl's claims that her public tweets were non-publishable failed the Internet Laugh Test, as did her follow-up claims that her copyrighted Twitter profile photo (no, not the photo of her -- the photo in the background -- read her side of the story for full details) could not be published without her permission.

Buhl's lawyer has stated he will appeal the verdict, as one does. He also stated, "She's not going to jail," and that he's known her for 25 years and can "attest to her character." The girl whose father she was dating can probably attest to Buhl's character as well, seeing as her diary pages were dug out of the back of her dresser drawer and publicly displayed on Facebook. (If you're interested in reading the arrest warrant, it's archived here.)

Still, a brief stint in jail doesn't necessarily mean no lawsuits will be filed. There is something of a tradition of certain prisoners using their downtime to file lawsuit after meritless lawsuit. One particularly determined inmate filed over 2,600 lawsuits in six years. But I imagine Teri won't end up serving time. This is a first offense and even though the judge said he "just couldn't excuse" Buhl's actions (when rejecting her lawyers' request for probation only), once the appeals process wraps up, I don't see her ending up with much more than probation. Buhl has had a chance to observe (firsthand) the criminal side of the legal system. I wonder if she's still in a hurry to acquaint herself with the civil side.

Now that this is "on the books," we're looking at someone who believes they can control the dissemination of their public statements while simultaneously holding the belief that publicly displaying the contents of a teenager's diary is perfectly fine, as long as you're a hard-hitting "jurno" chasing down a story.

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Filed Under: teri buhl

23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 8:08pm

Journo to the end of the cell.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 8:23pm

Parting is such tweet sorrow.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 8:45pm

Karma, is AWESOME.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 8:54pm

Re:
"Journo" might make sense. Alas, it's "Jurno".
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 9:01pm

This story is such buhlshit.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 9:08pm

Re:
Teri, is that you? If so that question is not for republishing.
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Mr. Smarta** (profile), 9 Apr 2013 @ 9:46pm

So, I guess the judge grabbed the Buhl by the horns... and won.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Apr 2013 @ 9:47pm

I was thinking isn't Buhl's posting of a teens diary on facebook, a violation of CFAA? I'm pretty sure it's a violation of facebooks terms of service.
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Pixelation, 9 Apr 2013 @ 10:43pm

"...with a small amount of schadenfreude".

Understatement is your specialty.
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Jeroen Hellingman (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 12:20am

Anonymized PDF? No Way!
A quick look at the Arrest Warrant learns that it has been anonymized by overlaying black bars; however, copy and paste the text will reveal the anonymized details... When will they ever learn?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 2:47am

Re:
You mean, "jurno to the center of the cells", right?
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Ninja (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 3:31am

Re:
In her last tweet was the hashtag #parted
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 3:58am

It's not that she won't be serving time because it's a first offense, she won't be serving time because she's a woman.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 6:25am

Re: Re:
What has partition management got to do with this?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 6:31am

Re: Anonymized PDF? No Way!
Absolutely brilliant.

Which idiot did that?
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DannyB (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 6:49am

Re:
Shouldn't the DOJ be making this a top priority?
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DannyB (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 6:50am

Re: Anonymized PDF? No Way!
> When will they ever learn?

I don't want them to learn.

Shhhhhhhh.
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DannyB (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 6:51am

Re:
That assertion presumes facts not in evidence before the court.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 9:34am

Re: Anonymized PDF? No Way!
ROFLOL! That is such an epic fail!
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2013 @ 9:42am

Re: Anonymized PDF? No Way!
Did you just circumvent the black bars? Call the DOJ. We have a CFAA violator here.

(I think we are going to need some more prisons built for all the new felons.)
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Bergman (profile), 10 Apr 2013 @ 4:35pm

Re: Re: Anonymized PDF? No Way!
And possibly the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause.
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Chrissy in Greenwich, 12 Apr 2013 @ 12:37pm

Re: No Facebook Harassment
Tim -
That arrest warrant you linked to says the New Canaan police charged her with harassment because she mailed the daughter's notes to the father, Paul Brody, and they felt harassed by that. So how could the harassment charge be related to anything put up on facebook. I think that would be the breach of peace charge.

Also here in CT you have to prove the person intended to harass someone via direct contact. The law doesn't take into account how the receiving person feels and posting something on facebook isn't direct contact. You have to actually call them or email them or send a fax.

Facebook + Teen + harass charge is a nice headline but it doesn't appear to be what the journalist is charged for or found guilty here. That Hearst paper you quoted is often wrong and Buhl use to report for them at Greenwich Time. They hate her because she exposed the top editor for favor to ad buys and holding hard news reports. The local blogs and other papers here all wrote about it when it happen-she was a hero. The finance types in Greenwich all fear what Buhl will report on them but also read everything she reports.

You know she didn't go to jail right and was released out of the courthouse?
http://www.ncadvertiser.com/20865/buhl-to-appeal-30-day-sentence/
This case always just reeked like some rich girl got her dad to pay off the cops to get Buhl arrested so people would stop talking about his kids hard party life.

I'm more concerned that anytime my GHS student writes his opinion of someone on his Facebook page he could get arrested now because of the Judge's ruling on the Buhl case. The whole thing feels like our local court just wants to criminalize speech.

Tim- For someone who is a big advocate of fair use in storytelling where is your worry over free speech?
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TAMIKA SMITH, 25 Apr 2013 @ 9:15am

RE.MATH
DO YOU HAVE ANY THING TO SAY ABOUT OK YES NO BY RPSE;
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