A civil lawsuit with potentially major ramifications about what counts as protected online speech got under way in Jefferson County Monday afternoon.



At issue, the question of whether blogger Alexandria Goddard and members of the online community at the website Prinniefied.com defamed a Steubenville High School athlete and his parents with comments made about the rape allegations against two of the plaintiff's teammates.

The plaintiff was not charged or asked to testify in the rape case; however, he was named regularly in blog postings and related forums about the case.


Last month, the plaintiff and his parents sued Goddard and approximately two dozen "John and Jane Does" who commented on stories about the case using anonymous screen names.

The plaintiffs' attorney said he could identify the anonymous posters by correlating screen shots of the original Prinnified.com site and data preserved by their respective Internet service providers. Without knowing their actual names, subpoenas cannot be issued and the case cannot continue, according to the plaintiff's attorney.

The plaintiffs' attorney claimed the blog and the forum had been moved to an online "host" in Hong Kong.

Judge David Henderson held a hearing Monday about whether to allow the plaintiff's attorney to get that information from several Internet service providers.

After hearing from the plaintiff's and Goddard's attorneys, Henderson took that motion under advisement, agreeing to rule on it as soon as possible.


Henderson did sign an order compelling several Internet service providers to preserve any data that may become evidence in the civil case.

The plaintiffs' attorney was concerned that some providers' policies purge such data after six months.


Goddard, who was not present for Monday's hearing, still has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, despite what the plaintiff's attorney claims was an exhaustive attempt to locate her at several previous addresses.

The plaintiff's attorney claimed Goddard was trying to evade being served.

Goddard's attorney said she was not avoiding process servers, but declined to tell the court where she is currently living claiming a potential violation of attorney-client privilege.

For the last couple of days twitter feeds from some of the most notorious trolls/bullies on the World Wide Web have blown up informing others that "Prinnie has been hospitalized."

Innuendo thrives on the web

November 4, 2012

To the editor:

I was recently kicked off of a website known as prinniefied.com. that is conducting its own investigation into a recent scandal involving an alleged rape. I was ejected from the site because I questioned the credibility of the owner of the site and some of those who post there. There is danger in the way this site is run because rumors and innuendos are treated as fact. Many post their interpretation of rumors they have heard on the street or from the posts by Prinnie her or himself (undetermined gender). Prinnie has a talent for searching cyberspace for previously posted tweets. She or he reaches into the past and pulls out tweets ranging from one word to a couple sentences and gives interpretations as if her or his assumptions are fact, and then some of the loose cannons on this site elaborate and polish a brand new rumor which is used to hate an individual and label them a scumbag.

Several who post there already have their minds made up that the entire football team is somehow involved in this crime. They are also convinced the staff, faculty, school board and the justice system are covering up or sidetracking the investigation. These people are posting total innuendo, and when I called them on it, I got accused of defending the perpetrators of this crime.

I questioned one poster with the web name of Bazanga for proof that all football players have some pertinent knowledge of the rape and aftermath. In a later post I had said that I had talked to the father of one of the Big Red players who told me that he questioned his son and was satisfied that his son wasn't at the party and had no involvement of any kind in the aftermath. My post was followed by many responses referring to my friends' son as a scumbag and making the statement that the BCI had taken his phone. They had no idea whom they were talking about - I had never mentioned his name. This Bazanga person made the assumption that the person with whom I spoke was the father of one of the kids who has been associated with an inflammatory tweet and who, according to Prinnie, has had his phone confiscated.

This site supposedly took this rape incident to help guarantee that this young girl gets the justice she deserves. While this is a noble goal, this site has lent itself to character assassination and has begun to resemble a lynch mob.

Prinnie fails to substantiate claims garnered by clips of tweets, some of which are vile and vulgar but provide no evidence of guilt. Prinnie also fails to encourage her or his followers to avoid innuendo and provide evidence for their accusations. The danger with this type of media is that it places innocent people and their reputations in jeopardy for no reason other than to juice up this gossip column.

Joe Scalise
Steubenville

Over the last several days a group of supporters for Alexandria Goddard aka Prinnie have taken to  twitter and have enlisted the help from several blog owners in response to the lawsuit that was filed against her (Prinnie) and several commenters of her website Prinniefied.com and this is the message  the supporters are relaying to those on twitter and the blog owners as well as various message boards around the web: