ken haas – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Techdirt, Volokh Conspiracy Targeted With Bogus Defamation Claim For Publishing A Bunch Of Facts

from the please-sir,-may-I-have-some-more-shovel? dept

Last spring, Mike Masnick covered a completely fake court order that was served to Google to make some unflattering information disappear. The court order targeted some posts by a critic of a local politician.

Ken Haas, a member of the New Britain (CT) city commission got into an online argument with a few people. When things didn’t go his way, Haas played a dubious trump card:

Several months ago, he got into a public controversy with local activist Robert Berriault — allegedly, when someone got in a Facebook political spat with Haas, he responded by writing, “You do know I have access to ALL city records, including criminal and civil, right???” Berriault took that to be a threat that Haas would misuse that access for political purposes and wrote about this on the New Britain Independent site, as well as in a not-much-noticed change.org petition calling for Haas’s removal.

Following this, a delisting request was sent to Google with a supposed Connecticut federal court order attached. But the judge who signed it (John W. Darrah) didn’t exist, the word “state” was misspelled (as “Sate”), and the docket number had already been used for another, existing civil case.

Ironically, as Mike discovered, the docket number linked to an Illinois case (and there is a judge named “John W. Darrah” in Illinois) with some similar subject matter. It was a Prenda case and it involved, of all things, allegations of document forgery.

That was a crazy case for a whole bunch of reasons, but it also got a ton of public attention. If you’re going to fake a court document, maybe don’t take one that is on a widely known case that got a lot of attention and is partly about forging legal documents? It’s like trying to pick a disguise to be inconspicuous in committing a crime, and dressing up like Hitler. People are going to notice, and they’re going to remember.

Eugene Volokh, who first discovered the bogus takedown notice, obtained a copy of the police report linked to Haas’ ill-advised social media foray. Apparently, Haas thought the police would hand him the online victory he had so miserably failed to obtain earlier. He reported Robert Berriault for harassment, only to be told nothing of the sort had taken place. Haas even admitted he had made the only threat — the one where he implied he’d start dumping private records if his opponents didn’t shut up.

The police told Haas something and it made him very sad.

I advised Haas that this was not a criminal act and that Berriault had every right to voice his opinion. I advised Haas that when you choose a career in politics that harsh criticism comes with the territory. Haas stated that he understood.

The sender of the takedown notice with the bogus court order is unknown, but the most direct beneficiary of the removal of these links would be none other than Ken Haas. It could be some sketchy rep management firm did the dirty work, but Haas was likely involved somehow.

Haas has apparently not let this go. Invaluable scourer of the Lumen database, Dean Jones, points out another bogus attempt to delist online content has been made — targeting posts at both Techdirt and the Volokh Conspiracy.

Now it emerges that an anonymous complainant has sent Google a defamation complaint requesting the removal of the two articles from its search results, citing a 1979 Supreme Court case concerning the public disclosure of personal information.

Yes, this one is styled as a defamation takedown request, even though both articles are factual and contain receipts. The takedown notice cites a Supreme Court decision that has nothing to do with either post, despite the claims made in the notice.

In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized an individual interest in the “practical obscurity” of certain personal information. The case was DOJ v. Reporters Committee for a Free Press. As well, this information is harmful to me as it concerns unfounded information which never resulted in prosecution. Not only has the dissemination of this information never been legitimate, but its internet referencing is clearly harmful to my reputation as my professional and personal surroundings can access it by typing my first and last names on the Internet.

This case has to do with withheld documents and FOIA exemptions. It does not guarantee some right to “practical obscurity” for all Americans. In this case, the DOJ withheld rap sheets from release, arguing their release would be an “unwarranted invasion of privacy.” The Supreme Court agreed, stating that the purpose of FOIA law was to permit examination of the government’s inner workings, not subject private citizens’ lives to greater scrutiny.

A police report, obtained and posted by a private citizen (or even a news agency), is not a violation of this ruling. And it sure as hell isn’t defamation. Haas is welcome to litigate the issue, but he’d have to sue the police department for releasing it. If Eugene Volokh acquired it from the other party in the complaint (who has a right to obtain a copy of the police report), then Haas has no one he can bring legal action against. The other party involved in a police report can do whatever they want with their copy, including sharing it with blogs detailing a politician’s incredibly stupid actions.

As Jones notes at Shooting the Messenger, Google was no more impressed with this latest attempt to vanish critical posts. The links remain live in Google’s search engine results and Haas’ reputation remains as mismanaged as ever.

Filed Under: bad takedown, fake court orders, ken haas, reputation management, takedown, wrongful takedown

If You're Going To Forge A Fake Court Order To Delete Search Results, Maybe Don't Choose A Prenda Case

from the just-a-tip dept

Eugene Volokh, just recently teamed up with Paul Levy to track down who was behind a scam abusing the court system with forged or fraudulent court documents to get questionable or fake court orders to force Google to takedown links. It’s a sketchy (and illegal) “reputation management” trick and it appears that at least a few folks are doing it. Volokh has just spotted another one and it comes with a Prenda Law twist. Volokh nicely sums up the background info leading up to this:

Ken Haas is a member of a New Britain (Conn.) city commission, the Commission on Conservation, appointed by Mayor Erin Stewart. Several months ago, he got into a public controversy with local activist Robert Berriault ? allegedly, when someone got in a Facebook political spat with Haas, he responded by writing, ?You do know I have access to ALL city records, including criminal and civil, right???? Berriault took that to be a threat that Haas would misuse that access for political purposes and wrote about this on the New Britain Independent site, as well as in a not-much-noticed change.org petition calling for Haas?s removal. (Since then, Berriault has announced his candidacy for the New Britain city council.)

And then, things get interesting. First, someone sent Google a notice asking it to take that Berriault story out of Google, and sent with it a “court order” in a supposed case between Haas and Berriault. You can see that “Haas v. Berriault” court order, but you may notice some oddities. The case claims to be in the “Sate” (not State) of Connecticut Superior Court:

It’s also in front of a Judge John W. Darrah. And the case number is 1:13-cv-01569. So there are some problems here. The “Sate” typo is a give away, but there is no Judge Darrah on the Connecticut court. There is one in US federal court in Illinois. And if you look on PACER in the federal court records, and look at 1:13-cv-01569 in the Norther District of Illinois, it happens to be… a case that we covered. It was the infamous Paul Duffy defamation case. Duffy, the “third wheel” to John Steele and Paul Hansmeier in the Prenda Law scheme, had sued a bunch of online critics for defamation, but the case focused on Alan Cooper (John Steele’s former house caretaker, whose signature Steele is accused of forging) and Cooper’s lawyer, Paul Godfried. Either way, it looks like the document that someone used as the “template” (including the Judge Darrah signature) came from the Duffy v. Godfried case.

That was a crazy case for a whole bunch of reasons, but it also got a ton of public attention. If you’re going to fake a court document, maybe don’t take one that is on a widely known case that got a lot of attention and is partly about forging legal documents? It’s like trying to pick a disguise to be inconspicuous in committing a crime, and dressing up like Hitler. People are going to notice, and they’re going to remember.

As Volokh notes, it’s not clear if Haas himself forged the document. It’s entirely possible he hired a reputation management firm who did something along those lines. Or, maybe there’s another explanation… but there really are only a small number of people who might benefit from this kind of thing:

Who submitted the forged order to Google? Commissioner Haas seems the likeliest intended beneficiary of the forgery and the takedown request, and his name (spelled as Ken Hass) was used on the takedown request. But it is of course possible that this was done by someone else, whether someone hired by Haas (with or without knowledge of what would be done) or someone else. I called Haas to ask about what happened here, but he told me he had no comment.

Anyway, forging a court order using a federal judge’s signature from another case is, well, a bad idea. I’d imagine it’s kind of worse than having someone publicly expose your threat to go through someone else’s city records. In an update, Volokh also notes that Haas also went to the police about Berriault over his posts, only to have the cops explain that it’s not a criminal act to state your opinion:

If you can’t read that, the report is from the police explaining Haas’ complaint about Berriault’s internet posts and how he “just wants Berriault to lighten up” as well as a conversation with Berriault, followed by this:

I advised Haas that this was not a criminal act and that Berriault had every right to voice his opinion. I advised Haas that when you choose a career in politics that harsh criticism comes with the territory. Haas stated that he understood.

Of course, forging a court order with a federal judge’s signature does seem a lot more like a criminal act. And someone appears to have done that.

Filed Under: connecticut, court order, eugene volokh, forgery, john darrah, ken haas, reputation management, robert berriault
Companies: prenda, prenda law