' Man Remains Jailed Over Web Postings
Man Remains in Jail for More Than Three Months in Legal Dispute Over Web Postings
SEATTLE (AP) -- A 70-year-old man has been in jail for more than three months for refusing to delete from his Web site addresses and other personal data of employees at the retirement home that evicted him.
The jailing of Paul Trummel, a native of England
who moved to the United States in 1985, has
drawn fire from national and international
writers groups that support his First
Amendment claims.
"Our concern is that he's being punished for
speech on the Internet that should be
protected," said Lucy Dalglish, executive
director of the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C.
Other groups that have questioned the jailing
include the National Union of Journalists in
London and Reporters Sans Frontieres of France.
Trummel was jailed indefinitely on Feb. 27 for violating an anti-harassment order by King County Superior Court Judge James A. Doerty. Doerty ruled in April 2001 that Trummel had been abusive and stalked residents and administrators at Council House, a low-income retirement home in Seattle.
Doerty ordered Trummel to remove from his Web site the home phone numbers, addresses and other personal data on employees at Council House, and imposed fines of $100 a day for failing to comply.
Trummel also was ordered to remove a picture making administrator Stephen Mitchell resemble Osama bin Laden.
Council House managers and some residents say Trummel is delusional, obsessive and inflammatory. He was evicted last year, partly because of his Web site and newsletter Disconnections, a takeoff on the center's official publication, Connections.
Last week Doerty limited Trummel's phone privileges, saying he was still harassing residents and staff members, and he was placed in solitary confinement. His incarceration is set for court review June 17. '
ca.us.biz.yahoo.com
.. sounds like the life of the party, this guy ... should be written into a Fraser script -g- ... uncool however to post personal info, got to clean him up a tich |
