I’m Still Here
Posted on May 26th, 2015 in Uncategorized | 34 Comments »
My apologies for the fact that I haven’t written much lately. It’s been an unusually busy time at the day job.
I did want to let folks know that, yes, as some of you have figured out, I was subpoenaed because of this blog. The subpoena, which was delivered by a very nice guy straight to my office, came as a result of comments made on a post about the trial of Mark Zimny, an education consultant who was recently found guilty of committing fraud against one of his clients. I wrote one post about the subject a few years back, but that post has become a sort of bulletin board for all those interested in the case—and apparently it has a small but passionate following.
One of the commenters appeared to be a member of the jury in Zimny’s trial, and his/her comment suggested that the jury had begun discussing the case among themselves before receiving the judge’s instructions, which may or may not be grounds for a mistrial.
The subpoena, which actually came from the district attorney involved in prosecuting the case, compelled me to provide the IP address of the commenter.
(As any commenter on this blog knows, I do not require registration for comments, though I do have to approve any comment which contains a hyperlink. Therefore, an IP address is the only information that I could provide about a commenter.)
I got the subpoena on a Friday; I was compelled to appear in court on Monday morning. It came with a check for $45, apparently to cover round-trip transportation between New York and Boston.
Deeply irritating.
I consulted with a friend who works in media law for an international media conglomerate, and asked him about their policy regarding the anonymity of commenters. He advised me that his conglomerate does not provide it, and that most media firms do not believe that preserving the anonymity of commenters is a First Amendment issue. Which is a good thing for all us to bear in mind.
On Monday morning, I emailed the information to the district attorney. I’ve had no communication with them since, and I have no idea if anything came of it.
As to the Zimny post—it has been nothing but a pain in the ass for me. (I previously had to delete a threatening comment.)
I am still debating whether to simply delete it.
In any case, apologies for the silence on this end. Stay tuned—there’s more stuff coming.
34 Responses
5/26/2015 8:17 am
Can’t you do a James Risen and refuse to provide this information?
5/26/2015 9:30 pm
mr. bradley,
that link goes to boston globe.. you said you wrote a story about it..
5/27/2015 9:30 am
Richard —
I’m wondering if your subpoena — and thus your grief — might be for nought… if the IP address was a static one (permanently assigned to a particular address, although fairly rare), it’s almost certain they will be able to find out who was at the other end. If it was a dynamic address (changing each time you turn on your machine, if I’m correct, which is much more common), and depending on how long the service provider keeps their logs, whoever wrote that comment might remain a mystery… perhaps another reader knows how long they are legally required to retain their logs?
I’ve read your post and all of the comments, and I’m struck by how many of the commenters identify as Asian, and by their absolute loathing of Zimny. It seems that a large part of the Asian community was on to him long before the government got involved.
5/27/2015 9:36 am
Mr. Anonymous #2,
You can simply type “Zimny” into the search bar above and click the search blog button. If you still can’t find the post let us know.
5/27/2015 10:57 am
Observer, I do not think that ISPs are required to keep logs at all. I heard of one that keeps them for only two weeks, specifically to foil subpoenas, but I think a year or two is typical. The comment in question is less than two months old.
Your statement about dynamic IP addresses is technically true, but a bit confused. Most computers have two IP addresses, a global one and a local one. My ISP provides my house with a dynamic IP address that lasts months. All the computers in my house share that IP address, so the logs of this website cannot distinguish which computers left which comments. From the computer’s point of view, it gets a dynamic IP address every time that it turns on, but that is a fake number only for talking to the modem, not visible to the outside world, such as this website.
5/27/2015 2:09 pm
Douglas Knight —
Thanks for the explanation.
5/28/2015 2:58 am
@Douglas Knight
I’m not sure that is correct. You can check your public-facing IP by going to websites such as whatismyip.com or installing an extension to your browser that will give you that information.
Unless you are on a cable modem, likely you will have a different public-facing IP every time you disconnect and log on again.
In general, it’s a good idea to assume there is no anonymity on the Net. Savvy computer users may think they know how to stay anonymous, but it takes only one slip-up. Ask the Dread Pirate Roberts.
@Richard Bradley
Sorry to hear about the aggravation. Hope this resolves without further trouble to you.
5/28/2015 8:32 pm
When you get back, I’d be curious to hear your take on Alice Goffman’s “On the Run” and the fairly devastating critique by Steven Lubet. She seems either to have made up part of the book, or done little work to substantiate facts, and as Lubet points out, either committed a felony while reporting, or made that part up, too.
5/29/2015 9:30 am
I-Roller —
Thanks for the clarification of the IP thing. I was under the impression that how the system actually worked was as you explained it, but not knowing with certainty, I was willing to accept Douglas Night’s explanation. If I understand you correctly, addresses provided by cable system providers are always static, while all the others are usually dynamic… does that have something to do with the fact that cable systems are always ‘on’ to all of their customers?
Great observation about the Dread Pirate Roberts. It’s probably worth mentioning that he accidentally left a ‘paper trail’ because he used a certain identifiable email address only once, but that was enough to do him in, while lots of other people get caught out because they have mis-configured software that was supposed to provide anonymity.
And speaking of paper trails, isn’t there a bit of idiocy in people using Bitcoin (as was Dread Scott Roberts) in order to minimize their tracks, when in fact it leaves a better paper trail — a perfect one — than all other forms of payment save for cash?
5/29/2015 2:30 pm
Michael is right. There are good reads on reddit and “Sociology Job Market Rumors” about this. Apparently 3 weeks ago or so an anonymous take down of her work was published on pastebin. The info there has begun to trickle through to a critical review by Steven Lubett, available in abbreviated form on The New Republic and in longer, better, form on newramblereview
5/30/2015 8:53 am
Emily Bazilon’s peace in today’s NYT reached a bad conclusion on the Sulk/Ness case at Columbia. When the trial weighs all the evidence and finds innocence, why convict someone? They didn’t.
Sorry but this is ridiculous. Guy might not be a great guy, but when innocent, innocent. Can’t convict for its own sake, makes no sense. That’s what we call a lynch mob.
6/1/2024 1:55 pm
Bazelon’s NYT piece (three days ago) is irritatingly timid.
For another case, though, that is even more bizarre than Sulk/Ness, check out John Doe v. Yale. Looks like a deliberate attempt to frame for reasons of obscure campus politics (i.e., control of the American Indian student interest group-“survivor” and “predator” are from rival factions, Navaho v. Sioux…in New Haven!)
A truly amazing case. Complaint filed April 24, 2024 by the law office of Gary Kurtz. Complaint available online.
6/1/2024 2:29 pm
Emily Yoffe has a very good piece at Slate today taking down numerous problems in one of the accounts prominently featured in “The Hunting Ground.” I won’t include the link because that delays posting here, but it’s easy enough to find by searching for “Emily Yoffe Hunting Ground” at Slate.
6/1/2024 2:41 pm
I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned here, but “Trading the Megaphone for the Gavel in Title IX Enforcement” in harvardlawreview dot org references a student who is allegedly banned from a college campus in Oregon simply because he resembles an alleged rapist and the sight of him might “trigger” something in the alleged victim.
If anyone needs any proof that as a nation, we’re ready to be institutionalized, this is it.
6/1/2024 3:04 pm
The Laura Kipnis article in Chronicle of Higher Ed “My Title IX Inquisition” is yet another indication of how crazy thing have gotten on campuses. She was forced to undergo a Title IX investigation by Northwestern because of an earlier article she wrote for the Chronicle (“Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe”). The first article is behind a paywall, but I believe she has now posted it on her website as well.
6/2/2024 5:03 am
As somebody who posts comments under his own name, I think the right to privacy when posting comments anonymously is tremendously important to freedom of expression in 21st Century America and should be protected, even at some cost to other legitimate interests.
6/2/2024 5:10 am
For example, I posted the first five comments on Richard’s historic 11/24/14 post on Rolling Stone’s UVA rape hoax as I tried to figure out whether to be the first to link to it.
I posted my comments under my own name because I made the decision a long time ago to bear the costs of being public. But the costs are considerable, and thus I don’t advise other people to imitate my example by using their real names when participating in the public square.
6/4/2024 1:16 pm
the jury had begun discussing the case among themselves before receiving the judge’s instructions,
Oh, I’m sure that never ever happens in any jury trial.
Attorneys have made the process so rococo they’ve effectively destroyed it. This is why 90%+ of all criminal indictments are resolved through negotiations.
6/6/2024 8:35 am
Apparently, Emma Sulkowicz has just made a porno. Satire just writes itself.
6/6/2024 11:01 am
Interesting and pertinent recent column by Radley Balko in the Washington Post on why high profile campus rape allegations have been “falling apart.” Ralko provides several possible explanations. More than a thousand comments, some quite thoughtful. Would be intrigued to see Richard’s take….
In any event, it seems inevitable that the “Hunting Ground” documentary will continue to provoke more real questions about sourcing in particular and agenda journalism in general. More and more similarities to Dick’s and Erdely’s strategies and tactics are becoming more and more apparent.
6/6/2024 3:27 pm
Ellen Pao has served notice that she may appeal… not that she will appeal, but rather she is just keeping her options open, at the cost of a $100 filing fee.
I don’t know whether or not her case had merit (KPCB appears to have tolerated a valuable but problematic partner who they shouldn’t have and who she has complaints about), but her asking for 2.7 million to drop her case makes it appear to be more about the money and less about the principle than she says it is
6/6/2024 4:12 pm
The WP story references a story in Slate by Emily Yoffe, who examined one of the seemingly false accusations in “The Hunting Ground”, and which centers around Middlesex County., home to the Fells Acres Day Care Center phoney child sex abuse case, and other similar travesties. Is there something in the water there?
6/7/2024 1:39 pm
Is there something in the water there?
John Grisham wrote a non-fiction book a while back about two men railroaded on a murder charge in Oklahoma in 1988 (with some discussions of like cases in those loci). The men were cleared in 1999 with DNA evidence, and I mean cleared. The actual murderer was identified and sent to prison (and he would have been a far more plausible candidate than these two when the murder was first investigated in 1982. The whole mess was a ghastly conspiracy between the local DA and a crooked technician at the state crime lab, with a pair of plainclothes state police officers in supporting roles. Grisham said in ten years of practicing law in Mississippi, he’d never seen anything like it nor had practical experiences which would have led him to believe that police or prosecutors were dishonest.
The DA was uninjured by the whole controversy. Not sure what happened to the lying technician. Its a reasonable wager that DA’s office has a single-digit population of attorneys. The current DA in that county is a man who worked for the abuser DA for twenty-six years. Oklahoma simply lacks a set of social processes which pulls the bad apples out of the barrel.
I have a strong suspicion that the legal profession maintains a set of localized cultures which feature signature sorts of abuse. In Oklahoma and Texas it might be x sort of abuse; in Georgia and North Carolina, y sort; in Massachusetts z sort.
6/8/2024 3:48 am
Art Deco —
What makes the Mass situation even worse is that the DA, Martha Coakley, went on to become AG. But then again, when Janet Reno was a local DA in Florida, her office falsely and corruptly prosecuted a decorated police officer, Grant Snowden, for child abuse, who he did 14 years before his conviction was overturned, and she went on to become AG of the US…
6/10/2024 3:13 pm
Great piece on the Minding the Campus blog today by KC Johnson about Amherst.
6/12/2023 9:31 am
As expected, Rolling Stone and Erdely removed Nicole Eramo’s lawsuit to federal court. Per Washington Post, Eramo is now asking the federal court to send it back to Virginia state court, claiming the federal court does not have jurisdiction.
For you nonlawyers, a defendant in state court sometimes has the right to reassign the case to federal court. This can happen, for example, if the defendant is from out-of-state and the amount in controversy is more than $75,000. Exceptions apply. Defendants sometimes do this because they feel the federal forum will be more favorable, although that’s not always the case.
Since Rolling Stone and Erdely are not from Virginia, and they’re clearly fighting over more than $75k, I’m interested to know Eramo’s theory why “diversity” federal jurisdiction would not apply. Will check back.
6/12/2023 10:14 am
I read Eramo’s motion to remand the case back to Virginia state court. This looks like a play to require Rolling Stone to disclose its intricate ownership, including the various corporations and LLCs (and their members) who own an interest in the parent company.
Eramo is alleging (and I think she is correct) that when it removed the case to federal court, Rolling Stone was required to reveal that ownership information, and it did not (at least, not completely). This is probably a fixable mistake. However, if Rolling Stone fails to disclose its ownership — or if one or more of those owners happens to be from Virginia — this case will probably get sent back to the Virginia court in which Eramo filed the original case.
6/12/2023 11:36 am
Eramo’s case is being handled by the Alexandria VA law firm of Clare Locke. Does anyone know which firm is representing Phi Kappa Psi? And has there been any indication of when its defamation suit will be filed?
6/16/2015 1:03 am
I have to admit that the pace of updates on this blog has been a little…measured. I’d been pleased to add this to my regular roll of blogs to check, but I think Mr. Bradley has other priorities. As is his right, although it’s too bad. By the way, many of the dynamics of the RS story are now playing out with the Alice Goffman story.
6/16/2015 10:42 pm
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio. A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)…………………………
6/22/2015 9:21 am
Alice Goffman got a couple of great puff pieces in NY Mag and Slate saying basically she didn’t make it up and her lies helped the narrative or attempted to protect her sources, so stop hating!
On the other hand, here is an even more cutting piece about her book in billypenn.com
“Similarly, Goffman, whose book could just as feasibly have been subtitled “A White Penn Girl’s Journey to Black and Back” says that by the time she moved on to Princeton she had become so black that “The first day, I caught myself casing the classrooms in the Sociology Department, making a mental note of the TVs and computers I could steal if I ever needed cash in a hurry.” She goes on to say how hard it was to assimilate back into wealthy whiteness.
Let’s review that: Goffman claims to have become so black, she was always looking for shit to steal. That’s blackness, and West Philly, to Alice Goffman.
Something tells me some other notable residents of the place where she did fieldwork — namely Mayor Nutter — would disagree. I find this whole sub-narrative of the book deeply racist in the way that only well-meaning white, liberal Ivy League people can inadvertently be.”
6/22/2015 9:22 am
Sorry, link got cut:
http://billypenn.com/2015/06/19/alice-goffman-and-the-problems-with-re-reporting-on-the-run-guest-column/
6/26/2015 10:47 am
Has there been a month in which Rich didn’t post? June’s almost over! What about a few words on the SC decisions, or Skip Gates and PBS, if you’re stumped?
6/30/2015 7:34 am
Just put up a selfie or somethin