Online Activity Causing Court Problems

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

That’s part of what people are told when they are arrested. It warns people about incriminating themselves in a criminal prosecution.

But maybe we should all remember this:

Anything you post online can come back to bite you in court.

A police officer is currently being accused of some nefarious behavior. The officer’s MySpace information and website comments have been subpoenaed, and now they’re being used against him in a police brutality case. He certainly should’ve been careful with his online activity.

An even weirder case also occurred last week. An Arkansas juror is being accused of misconduct by Twittering about the trial. Lance Turner has been maintaining an extremely thorough article on the case. One of the juror’s allegedly improper tweets includes:

So Jonathan, what did you do today? Oh nothing really, I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money

What does all this mean for you and me? Just remember what your mom taught you: if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Be careful what you post online, since you might be surprised how it can come back to haunt you.