The Domestic abuse trial of former State Senator Jeff Woodburn was scheduled to begin at the end of the month but may be delayed. Someone released an image of his alleged victim. The picture was under a protective order.
Someone shared it. Enquiring minds want to know.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward said there could only be four parties, he, Jacobs, [Donna] Brown or [Jeff] Woodburn, and said it was neither he nor Jacobs – but Brown will inevitably be called as a witness in the new investigation and that would pose a conflict of interest and complicate the appeal in the case that Woodburn has vowed if convicted, said Ward.
Donna Brown is Woodburn’s Defense attorney.
The State says Brown may have to testify against her client as a witness into the investigation of the illegal leak. This may create a legal trap regarding an expected appeal should the Domestic violence charges stick. Most of the reporting is on the legal aspect of a Defense attorney having to be a witness against their client. But what about the leak?
Items under a protective order are not to be released to the public. That’s the point.
Once there very little can be done to prevent dissemination. But sometimes knowing who is doing that leads back to the source of the leak or the motivation for it.
The North Country Rumor Mill says Woodburn Fan-Gurl Lizzi Reudiger is sharing and or defending the leaked image on social media. I have also heard that she may have sent it to at least three newspapers (none of whom published it). That’s not substantiated and as noted, there’s nothing technically illegal about it even if you know a court ruling protects the image.
Here’s where I agree with Elizabeth Reudiger. Playing “look what I found” on the internet is how the world works these days. All of us are the ‘Free press.’ Declaring yourself a media outlet does not give you greater speech protections than anyone else. But it also waves red flags to investigators
“Patient” Zero
As of a day or two ago sources say the ‘image’ was still publicly available. I’m told Woodburn’s Aunt had it on her Facebook page. Ruediger is defending the leak on social media on the basis (as far as I can tell) that there’s no privacy in the internet world.
So, I guess it’s okay for me to share that someone else on the internet claims Woodburn was fired from a teaching job for throwing a chair. At a student. Hey, it’s just laying around out there on the internet. It makes Woodburn look like he has anger issues, but we knew that already. He has admitted he has anger issues and it scares him.
But before the court can work that out someone, probably Jeff Woodburn, deliberately leaked material under a protective order. Given that Woodburn was a lawmaker, you’d think he’d be opposed to someone ignoring rules and laws as if they don’t apply to them.
Leaking material protected by the court for trial.
Wait, is there a Justifiable Domestic Violence Defense of which I’m not aware?
