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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (23606)	1/9/2004 11:30:56 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793622

The Media constantly pounds on the censorship of the "Patriot Act." But the stories I find every week are about Liberals censoring conservatives. This one is outrageous. The Professor must have had a good friend on the Police Department. Even the ACLU can't take this one. Student squeals over seizure College satirist suing Greeley police after computer confiscated By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News January 9, 2004 A Weld County man is suing Greeley police for seizing the computer on which he publishes an online newsletter called The Howling Pig, which takes satirical barbs at a vocal university professor. Thomas Mink, of Ault, a 24-year-old English major at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, said police have warned that he likely will be charged with criminal libel because The Howling Pig makes fun of Junius "Jay" Peake, a Monfort Distinguished Professor at UNC and a specialist in financial markets. Advertisement The Howling Pig, online at www.geocities.com/thehowlingpig/, says its editor, founder and spiritual leader is "Junius Puke," an apparent play on Peake's name. The newsletter describes Puke as a former roadie for the band KISS who is taking time off "from his well-earned, corporate endowed sinecure at a small western university in order to assist in the publication of The Howling Pig." A disclaimer states that Puke is not Peake. It goes on to describe Peake as "an upstanding member of the community as well as an asset to the Monfort School of Business where he teaches about microstructure." In one issue, a column purportedly written by the fictitious "Junius Puke" criticized UNC Board of Trustees Chairman Dick Monfort as "too stupid and irresponsible for the 'Party' to give you any real power" and said the governor put Monfort on the board because he is a wealthy campaign contributor. The Puke column urged Monfort to resign from the UNC board and live at the Greeley Country Club. According to Mink's lawsuit, Greeley police arrived at his home Dec. 12 with a search warrant because Peake complained to police after the third issue of The Howling Pig appeared. That issue contained the "Junius Puke" column about Dick Monfort. No subsequent issues have appeared. "We have another one more or less ready to go, but nobody wanted to do it for fear that we'd go to jail," Mink said in an interview Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which filed the lawsuit for Mink in Denver U.S. District Court, said that's exactly the silencing of free expression that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment is supposed to prevent. The ACLU contends that Colorado's rarely used criminal libel statute is unconstitutional. The law makes it a crime to publish statements "tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation or expose the natural defects of one who is alive." "A number of antiquated statutes with similar language have been held unenforceable in other states," the ACLU said in a statement Thursday. Mink said he has had no classes with Peake and has never spoken with him, but that Peake is well- known in the UNC community. "He's pretty much the most outspoken person on campus on conservative issues," Mink said. Peake, who is not a party to the lawsuit, declined to comment. Weld County District Attorney Al Dominguez Jr., who is a defendant, said he had only recently read a letter from the ACLU about Mink's claims. "I am in the process of finding out what this is all about," Dominguez said. Greeley, its police department and one detective also are defendants. Jeff Parins of the Greeley city attorney's office said city officials received a copy of the lawsuit Thursday afternoon and would make no statement until they had reviewed it. "There is no legitimate place for a criminal libel statute in a free society," Mark Silverstein, ACLU legal director, said in a statement. "Civil lawsuits provide an adequate remedy for defamation. No one should be threatened with jail for what they write or publish." The lawsuit seeks an emergency court order stopping Greeley police and prosecutors from charging Mink with criminal libel. Mink and his mother, who share a home and the computer, also want the computer back. Among other things, it contains two course papers that Mink had intended to e-mail to his professors on the day the computer was seized. It also contains information used in his mother's embroidery business. "The Howling Pig spoofs professor Peake and takes issue with his politics through parody and satire," the ACLU said in court documents. "Although professor Peake has been happy to voice his own views on a range of issues with great frequency and fervor, he proved unwilling to bear the heat of the kitchen," the ACLU's filing said. "Professor Peake has often voiced his views publicly on a range of issues. However, professor Peake apparently lacks, or has a limited, sense of humor." URL: rockymountainnews.com