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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Baltimore city state's attorney considering prosecuting those responsible for taping ACORN employees

STATEMENT OF STATE’S ATTORNEYS OFFICE FOR BALTIMORE CITY RELATIVE TO THE ALLEGED BALTIMORE ACORN INCIDENT

Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.
If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.

The Maryland state prosecutor's office went after Linda Tripp in the 1990s on two wiretap charges. Tripp was accused of illegally taping a phone conversation with Monica Lewinsky about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton and disclosing the conversation to Newsweek. Prosecutors decided to drop the case when Lewinsky's testimony was suppressed.

The video was shot by film maker James O'Keefe, who posed as a pimp who said he was going to run for Congress. The video also featured a 20 year old woman who posed as a woman named "Kenya."
The video appears both on You Tube and on the Web site of Andrew Breitbart, a columnist for the Washington Times and Drudge Report.  (see full story here)

3 comments:

Stray Yellar Dawg? said...

Entirely predictable. Whenever someone is guilty nowadays... they cry "entrapment." Honestly, if I had not seen what ACORN did to Hillary last year, I'd be inclined to side with them.

Not this time, though. ACORN has worn out it's welcome with many PUMAs.

I am sure the film-maker knew this was a possibility. And, I also suspect that his legal fees will be more than covered by his associations with Brietbart and Beck.

What will matter in the end, is NOT what any MD court decides. It will matter what the people of the US decide. And I'd say... most of us have just about had it...

Mary Ellen said...

I doubt very much if the state's attorney would get away with that. For one thing, there was such an outrage over the behavior of the ACORN staff that they were fired and it caused ACORN to lose it's ability to work for the census. If the state's attorney dared to go after these people, there would be such a cry of foul that he would be in danger of ever serving in any office again. Not to mention, this would hurt ACORN even more because it would cause more negative publicity for them...which in turn would bring negative publicity to Obama who is so closely tied to ACORN. Using public office to go after someone for political gain usually doesn't fair out well in the end.

Anonymous said...

FYI

Guess what?

If these articles are to be believed……

http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/09/states-attorney-in-baltimore-who-would.html

“State’s Attorney In Baltimore Who Would Prosecute ACORN Filmmaker Is A Partisan Obama Supporting Democrat”

From Hot Air web site:

” Who exactly is Patricia Jessamy, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney whose office threatened to prosecute the undercover reporters that exposed ACORN’s pimp-protecting and tax-evasion operation? Chris at HAP does a lot of legwork on Jessamy — and finds a partisan Democrat who has invested both time and money in supporting Barack Obama. Chris also has links to Jessamy’s personal contribution to Obama’s campaign, as well as her position on a steering committee for his campaign. Jessamy isn’t exactly an uninterested party when it comes to Obama and those organizations that support him. That explains the odd decision by the prosecutor to consider charges against the people who uncovered a conspiracy to evade taxes and shield pimps, rather than the conspirators themselves.” …

However in another case of hidden cameras Judge Jessamy praised the Maryland TV station using the hidden cameras!

” INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
First Place: Tisha Thompson, John Anglim, Susan Kirkwood
(WMAR-TV) “The US Rental Network”

Judge (Jessamy) Comments: This is just darn good journalism. We didn’t hear enough about the conversation your producer had in the hidden camera part of the story. We loved the MySpace connection & the thoughtfulness of the other people involved in a past scheme. Excellent.
Hidden cameras?

Darn good journalism … for WMAR, and apparently not anything in which Jessamy was interested.

In 2009, when those hidden cameras go after a group supporting Barack Obama and his policies — well, that’s a different matter altogether. It shows that Jessamy is less interested in enforcing the law and helping children than she is in abusing her power to attack critics who threaten Obama’s power and policies.”