CCA going to court over online posting

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Community Corrections Association’s director says someone libeled the agency and a member of its staff on Vindy.com last year, and he intends to find and sue the sender of the offending message.

“You can’t fabricate lies anonymously about individuals and corporations,” said Richard J. Billak, CCA’s chief executive officer.

Billak was referring to a posting that appeared on The Vindicator’s Web site, Vindy.com, on May 31, 2008, accusing a staff member of the halfway house of infidelity.

“The facts of that divorce are different from the statement made on the Web site, and the factual information is now a matter of the finalized divorce records,” Billak said.

Vindy.com provided the IP address of the poster of the offending statement and said it didn’t know the identity of that person who gained Internet access through America Online.

CCA filed a petition for discovery April 23, seeking a court order compelling AOL to disclose the identity of the person posting the offending comment on Vindy.com.

The case is assigned to Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Billak said he first noticed the posting and notified Web site staff the day after it appeared. Vindy.com immediately deleted the offending message.

Billak applauded Vindy.com’s new policy of requiring those posting comments to register their identities.

An AOL spokeswoman said Tuesday that the network doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

However, AOL’s privacy policy says the network shares user information with third parties only under limited circumstances. Such information may be disclosed in response to a court order, search warrant or subpoena, the policy says.