Sacremento, CA. Judge orders juror to turn over Facebook postings.
The Facebook fight under way in a Sacramento courtroom pivoted into new territory Friday when a judge gave a juror 10 days to turn over postings he made during a gang beating trial last year or face possible jail time.
An attorney for juror Arturo Ramirez protested the order by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny and said he would appeal it as high and as far as he can.
"It's a matter of principle and privacy," lawyer Kenneth L. Rosenfeld said. "There's no reason this material should be turned over. We're putting a burden on jurors that's going to make them not want to serve on jury duty. The entire system collapses without people wanting to serve on jury duty."
Friday's hearing had shaped up as a constitutional contest between Facebook and defense lawyers for reputed members of the so-called Killa Mobb gang who said their clients needed the postings to make sure the juror wasn't biased when he voted to convict them. Facebook countered that the disclosure was precluded by federal computer privacy law.
Kenny short-circuited the constitutional battle with his order Friday that the juror – who was not present in the packed courtroom – allow Facebook to make the postings available for judicial review in chambers. The federal Stored Communications Act allows for such disclosure if the individual party agrees to it, if it is requested by law enforcement agencies investigating a crime or by court orders in ongoing criminal investigations.
The defense lawyers asked for the postings once they were tipped off by another juror after the verdict that Ramirez had been talking on his Facebook page about the trial while it was under way. The attorneys have since succeeded in delaying the sentencing of their clients – some of whom are facing life terms – amid the effort to flush out what Ramirez wrote on his page, who responded, what they said and whether any of it influenced his decision in the case.
Link:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/05/3379139/juror-ordered-to-turn-over-facebook.html