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Trummel now in solitary

Author:   Matt Deatherage  
Posted: 6/3/02; 10:28:19 AM
Topic: Trummel now in solitary
Msg #: 262 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next: 261/263
Reads: 3077

As reported in Politech, Seattle writer Paul Trummel, who is already in jail for contempt of court because he wrote things about a nursing home that the nursing home didn't like and refused to retract them, is now in "the hole" -- solitary confinement.

Why? Because it was "too hard" to monitor his telephone conversations otherwise, on what was surely only a handful of phones available to inmates. Trummel's rights are already being shattered -- he obeyed a prima facie illegal court order to take down a Web site criticizing the home, but put the same material on a site outside the US, so the judge ordered him jailed until he took it down.

First, the non-US Web site is not under any US jurisdiction, and Trummel can't be jailed for what it says. Plain, simple, undisputable.

Second, he also can't be jailed for publishing anything the nursing home doesn't like. He can be sued for defamation, and if he loses, he may have to withdraw the comments and pay damages. But prior restraint -- having to withdraw his comments before a trial -- requires a high standard of proof no one says the nursing home company has met.

Third, of course, there is no Internet access in jail, and Trummel's phone privileges are now heavily restricted. He can't change a Web site without Internet access, and it looks like the judge is now trying to stop him from exposing his illegal treatment. Judge Richard Doerty says Trummel has no journalistic standing, and therefore apparently "limited" First Amendment rights, because he's not paid for his work. How ridiculous is it to think that you have no freedom of speech unless someone pays you to say what you say?

Trummel's appellate attorney says, "This is a petty tyrant judge running amok with power and possibly trying to cover his tracks." So far, that looks pretty spot-on. An entry I wrote on Trummel in March comes up consistently from search engines in the referrer logs, so lots of people seem to be intrigued, or disturbed, by what Judge Doerty is doing to Trummel. It seems clear from this new article that Trummel has detractors, but last time I checked, having detractors doesn't mean you can be jailed so they don't have to listen to you.
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