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ACORN, the embattled community organizing group with employees who were captured dispensing financial advice to a young couple posing as a pimp and prostitute, says it has filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers who secretly recorded the footage in Baltimore.
In a release Wednesday evening, the national headquarters for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now announced it is seeking "an injunction against further distribution" of the video, "along with compensatory and punitive damages."
The filing could not be confirmed by a check of electronic Maryland court records.
ACORN says filmmakers James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, and distributor Breitbart.com violated Maryland's law that prohibits audio recording without the consent or knowledge of the subject. Maryland ACORN fired Shera Williams and Tonja Thompson, the two part-time employees caught on tape, Sept. 10, the day that recording was made public.
On the video, Williams and Thompson appear unfazed as they advise the supposed pimp and prostitute on how to maximize tax credits while setting up a brothel with underage sex workers from South America.
Since then, similar recordings made in four other cities have been released, prompting the U.S. Census Bureau, federal lawmakers and, on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service, to cut ties with the organization, which was founded four decades ago in Little Rock, Ark. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler launched an investigation this week.
ACORN's attorney, Arthur Schwartz, said the organization also plans to sue in California and, possibly, in Washington, D.C., where two other recordings were made.
Bertha Lewis, the national leader of ACORN, said in a release, "Although we do not condone what our former employees did, no matter how entrapped they were, we are also committed to our 500,000 members that we will hold the defendants civilly and criminally responsible for their violations of Maryland laws and for the damages inflicted upon ACORN's reputation."
The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, ACORN said. Its legal team will include local attorneys Andy Freeman, A. Dwight Pettit, and C. Justin Brown.
In a release Wednesday evening, the national headquarters for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now announced it is seeking "an injunction against further distribution" of the video, "along with compensatory and punitive damages."
The filing could not be confirmed by a check of electronic Maryland court records.
ACORN says filmmakers James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20, and distributor Breitbart.com violated Maryland's law that prohibits audio recording without the consent or knowledge of the subject. Maryland ACORN fired Shera Williams and Tonja Thompson, the two part-time employees caught on tape, Sept. 10, the day that recording was made public.
On the video, Williams and Thompson appear unfazed as they advise the supposed pimp and prostitute on how to maximize tax credits while setting up a brothel with underage sex workers from South America.
Since then, similar recordings made in four other cities have been released, prompting the U.S. Census Bureau, federal lawmakers and, on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service, to cut ties with the organization, which was founded four decades ago in Little Rock, Ark. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler launched an investigation this week.
ACORN's attorney, Arthur Schwartz, said the organization also plans to sue in California and, possibly, in Washington, D.C., where two other recordings were made.
Bertha Lewis, the national leader of ACORN, said in a release, "Although we do not condone what our former employees did, no matter how entrapped they were, we are also committed to our 500,000 members that we will hold the defendants civilly and criminally responsible for their violations of Maryland laws and for the damages inflicted upon ACORN's reputation."
The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, ACORN said. Its legal team will include local attorneys Andy Freeman, A. Dwight Pettit, and C. Justin Brown.
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Equality, I don't disagree with you. The problem is that that
1 - The equality gap is a national trend, this is not just localized in Maryland
2 - The Democratic Party has been infiltrated by the same corruption of corporate influence as has the Republican Party. The difference is that the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporations whereas they only have a strong beachhead in the Democratic Party in the Democratic Leadership Council. Basically all the "centrist" or "Blue Dog" Democrats are bought and paid for just like all the Republicans are. I would say that within the next 4 years or so, maybe sooner we will know if we will be able to kick the corporations out of the party and return to the people's interests or if the corporations will have won and it will be time to abandon the Democratic Party as a sold out corpse to corporations just like the Republican Party has been all along. Obama does not, at least so far, portend well for the future. In many ways he has continued Bush's policies like bank bailouts, stupid wars, signing statements and horrific appointments to his chief of staff, treasury, the FED and the NEC. I will not abandon the Democratic Party at this point because they are the only game in town. There are still people in that party fighting for our interests unlike in the Republican Party where they only listen to corporations.
BruceG70 (09/25/2009, 3:41 PM )