Union official guilty of cyberstalking ex-lawmaker
ERIKA NIEDOWSK | RI State Wire
Sept. 19, 2001
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A Rhode Island teachers’ union official was found guilty on Monday of cyberstalking a former state lawmaker after a judge rejected the defense’s argument that emails he sent were constitutionally protected as free speech.
John Leidecker, deputy executive director with the National Education Association-Rhode Island, was found guilty by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Isherwood and ordered to pay a $100 fine.
Isherwood said that emails Leidecker sent last year to then-state Rep. Doug Gablinske, of Bristol, including from a fictitious constituent and another person named “Doug Gablinski,” were sent for the “sole purpose” of harassing the lawmaker. The judge dismissed defense attorney Robert Mann’s argument that the communications were political parodies that should be protected by the First Amendment.
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