Originally Posted - July 16, 2006

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The day following last week's publishing of  "Word Games", a commentary regarding the Bill Clinton-Michael Schiavo connection, the publisher of The North Country Gazette was made the subject of an defamatory blogspot powered by Google Inc. and targeted with libelous and defamatory advertisements placed with Google on the search pages for The North Country Gazette and publisher June Maxam.

On Sunday, the day following the publication of "The Political Exploitation of Terri Schiavo", the North Country Gazette publisher was threatened and "advised" to cease "the Schiavo nonsense", coverage of the Schiavo case, or else face retaliatory action.

"Schiavo is dead. It's a done deal. All of your squawking and judge and doctor and Michael baiting will produce no positive results", the Michael Schiavo fanatic says in an threatening email message.

Over the past month, over a dozen threatening and harassing email messages have been received, some in the form of impersonation in the name of Ginger Berlin, Maxam's co-publisher at The Empire Journal, and some using Maxam's own name in an email address with messages obviously intended to annoy and alarm. Other names are obviously fictitious.

In one instance, the Michael Schiavo supporter placed the publisher's name on a porn site and then followed up with numerous harassing emails about the deed. Fortunately the emails are traceable.

The matter has been the subject of a police investigation since January when an individual impersonated the NCG publisher to send a harassing email to Berlin, using the contact form of the now defunct Empire Journal website. Berlin refuses to accept the fact that the sender was not Maxam and the harasser reveled in deepening the schism between Maxam and Berlin, sending numerous emails to Maxam.

The Cyber Crime Unit of the New York State Police obtained a subpoena through the Warren County District Attorney's office in an effort to identify the name of the customer of the IP number which has been identified by tracking the emails both through the headers on the emails received and through the statistical information of the website. The harasser's internet service provider has been identified as primarily Verizon and the name and address of the account holder has now been identified. It now appears that more than one person may be involved and efforts are underway to identify the owners of the other IP numbers.

In that Berlin refused to provide the sender information of the January email from the logs of The Empire Journal and has persisted in falsely stating that Maxam was the sender of the email, publishing false and defamatory statements with a reckless disregard for the truth, civil litigation was initiated.

With the advent of the Google ads and blog last week, Maxam reported the ongoing harassment to both the New York State Police and has now filed a complaint with the FBI Cyber Crime Unit with the headers and other information from the emails due to the ongoing impersonation and unauthorized use of the publisher's name. A request has been filed with the Warren County District Attorney's office for a subpoena to obtain the name of the person operating the Google blog and advertising account with Google. Maxam is also seeking a court order that will force Google to identify the name of the account holder.

Virtually each time a significant article involving Michael Schiavo is published at The North Country Gazette, a spate of abusive, harassing and sometimes threatening emails are directed at Maxam and NCG under various pseudonyms although virtually always the same IP number and through Verizon. The publisher has been successful in have the abusive accounts closed through Yahoo and Hotmail. The individual is now using a messaging service but it is still possible to track the IP number from where the message is emanating. Blocks have been placed on the identifiable IP numbers and addresses.

Various forms of harassment directly related with news coverage of the Schiavo case has been ongoing since last year and has intensified in the last month. The abuser also makes reference to the Futile Care law of Texas, enacted when President Bush was then Governor of Texas.

Security reports have been filed with Verizon. Sending emails anonymously or with a fictitious address or under impersonation is a federal offense.

Anyone with reliable information concerning the ongoing harassment and Schiavo connection is asked to contact news@northcountrygazette.org
7-16-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette