DOJ Pays $134,000 To Settle Case Of DEA Agents Impersonating A Woman On Facebook
from the dea-out-of-control dept
Back in the fall, we wrote about how the DEA impersonated a woman on Facebook, even posting photographs of her young children (which they had taken off of her phone), in order to try to track down drug dealers. The woman, Sondra Arquiett, had dated a guy who was convicted of drug dealing, and had herself been charged with letting her boyfriend store some drugs in her apartment, leading to a sentence of probation. DEA agent Timothy Sinnegen then took the photos off of her phone, set up a fake Facebook page pretending to be Arquiett and tried to "friend" people she knew, in trying to track down other drug dealers. Arquiett was totally unaware of this until a friend brought it up, leading her to sue the DEA.A few days ago, the Justice Department agreed to settle the case, paying her $134,000 for her troubles. As with many settlements, this one includes the government insisting that the settlement is not an admission of any guilt for its actions -- though it also leaves open that Arquiett could seek to get some attorneys' fees as well. Both Facebook and Senator Leahy had criticized the government for this action, and the DOJ promised to review this kind of practice -- though that review is still "ongoing." Either way, in this case, the DOJ realized that it was best to just pay up rather than let the case go much further.
Even so, the statement from the feds is fairly ridiculous:
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Richard Hartunian, who previously had defended the agent’s behavior in court filings, issued a statement Tuesday calling the settlement “a fair resolution.” He said it “demonstrates that the government is mindful of its obligation to ensure the rights of third parties are not infringed upon in the course of its efforts to bring those who commit federal crimes to justice.”Sorry, but if the government is actually "mindful of its obligations to ensure the rights of third parties are not infringed upon," then, uh, it shouldn't have impersonated people in the first place. Hopefully this settlement means it will not do so again in the future.
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Filed Under: dea, doj, impersonation, social media, sondra arquiett, timothy sinnegen
Companies: facebook
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The government is mindful of its obligations? Well there you go folks, nothing to see here.
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Yeah, but there's a WAR ON DRUGS going on!
If we were to take one teeny tiny step back from this war on (some) drugs, it could lead to dire consequences and the sky would fall!
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Fraud
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So when is the sky falling?
Not that typical fraud on banks where the banks have managed to put the burden of restitution on a 3rd party by calling it "Identity Theft"
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Since it's taxpayer money being used to pay these fees, and not money they earned, then what do they care?
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Wondering...
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Re:
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Have any settlements to victims of police abuse ever served as a deterrent to future police abuse?
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No jail time, no record just pay off the people you committ crimes against with their own money. Then start over and ruin the life of someone else as you learn nothing from it.
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Re: Wondering...
It is not like that's never happened before with criminal out of control government agents
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3 million zillion left to go
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Have an idea for a movie
Not sure if this is a comedy or a horror flick...
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Crooks in power = citizsen victims
The settlement is thus, nothing more than the tax payer once again footing the bill for a cash bribe to the victim of its own out-of-control law enforcement cowboys, to try and get her to stop bitching about being legally screwed over.
Since no laws were broken, then any internal investigation will find just that, that no laws were broken - once again.
In plain words, activities that would under any circumstance be seen as criminal if they were done by a citizen, are totally legal when done by law enforcement.
Two tiered Justice.
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Re: Have an idea for a movie
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Infringement too?
It would be unrelated the the criminal settlement, and as a civil case have a lower bar.
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