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| ACORN sues filmakers and Breitbart |
| 2009-09-24 |
| BALTIMORE (AP) - Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute. The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings. The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered "extreme emotional distress." The legal theory being that if you prevent people from helping prostitutes evade taxes and set up a slavery ring, well that hurts their feelings soooo much The multimillion-dollar lawsuit seeks damages from James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the videos, and from conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site. |
| Posted by:lord garth |
| #13 that change would certainly have caused a huge amount of emotional distress Not to mention the time and expense of ordering a new set of business cards and letterhead stationery. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-09-24 15:42 |
| #12 The folks at RedState don't think much of ACORN's legal argument. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-09-24 15:32 |
| #11 "I triple-dog dares ya to throw me in that briar patch over there! You ain't gots the guts t'do it!" --Andrew Breitbart (paraphrased slightly) |
| Posted by: Mike 2009-09-24 15:31 |
| #10 It'll be the icing in the cake if someone found an actual underage brothel operating with the advice and support of ACORN. (Of course not for the poor girls involved...). Like someone above said - discovery is going to be a real bitch for ACORN. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-09-24 15:16 |
| #9 Insty, Ann Althouse and some other on-line lawyer types are crediting Breitbart with egging ACORN to sue so he can go hog-wild with discovery. |
| Posted by: Elmager Poodle2990 2009-09-24 15:12 |
| #8 Needless point to make in this forum, but it all once again points to the phueching overarching problem, and that would be LAWYERS! |
| Posted by: Besoeker in Duitsland 2009-09-24 14:46 |
| #7 redneck maybe the Acorn folks were fired from their jobs are office director and assistant office director and then hired to be office manager and assistant office manager (or some similar change) that change would certainly have caused a huge amount of emotional distress |
| Posted by: lord garth 2009-09-24 14:41 |
| #6 Last I heard, acorn claimed those agents wee fired, but they're still at work, so it's a straight lie. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-09-24 14:07 |
| #5 Interesting question of standing - how does ACORN have it if they fired the two employees in the tape? I'd love to see their argument on that. Breitbart's in the clear, according to the Supremes (no, I don't remember the case name off the top of my head). IANAL (Gott sei Dank!). |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-24 13:55 |
| #4 This could give a whole new meaning to the "Discovery Channel". |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-09-24 13:43 |
| #3 Counter suit? (I hope) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-09-24 13:32 |
| #2 They sued the IRS too! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-09-24 12:45 |
| #1 Won't make it to the courthouse steps. Another "all wow, no sham" production. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-09-24 12:14 |