PRESS RELEASEBEFORE THEY BECAME FAMOUS FOR CONVICTING A SPAMMER AND THROWING A MISSILE FROM A CAR
EACH ONE OF THEM HARBORED A DIRTY SECRET
THESE STAFFORD COUNTY JUDGES
GAINED NOTORIETY WORLD WIDE
JUDGE JAMES W. HALEY JR. OF STAFFORD COUNTY IS WELL KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR OPENING THE DOORS AND CONVICTING
JEREMY JAYNES FOR SPAMMING AND LATER ON APPEAL
THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURNED JEREMY'S
NINE YEAR CONVICTION.
The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a state antispam law on Tuesday by affirming the conviction of the first person in the United States to face prison time for spamming.
Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in November 2004 of sending out bulk e-mails with disguised origins and being in possession of a stolen database of more than 84 million AOL subscribers' addresses. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Judge James W. Haley Jr. released an opinion on behalf of a three-judge panel that struck down all of Jaynes' appeal arguments.
The facts of the case were undisputed in the appeal, according to court documents. Rather, Jaynes' attorneys appealed on the grounds that the law used to convict Jaynes was unconstitutionally vague, unconstitutional under the First Amendment and violated the Constitution's Dormant Commerce Clause. The American Civil Liberties Union, Rutherford Institute and United States Internet Service Provider Association each filed friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of the appeal.
Jurisdiction was also a matter of dispute: Jaynes' lawyers argued that while the AOL servers Jaynes routed e-mails through are located in Loudon County, Virginia, the Virginia court lacked jurisdiction because Jaynes sent the e-mails from his home in North Carolina.
"We disagree," the court said, citing previous cases upholding Virginia's right to charge people in the place where the damage of a crime results, not where it originates.
"Online fraud is a costly and serious crime. Today's ruling reinforces Virginia's Anti-Spam Act, and further protects the people of the Commonwealth from identity thieves and cyber criminals," Virginia State Attorney General Bob McDonnell said in a statement.
At the time of his arrest, Jaynes was regarded as the eighth-worst spammer by spam watchdog Spamhaus, the statement added.
JUDGE FRANK A. HOSS JR. OF STAFFORD COUNTY IS WELL KNOWN FOR CONVICTING JESSICA HALL BETTER KNOW AS THE MCMISSLE GIRL .
JESSICA HALL
STAFFORD, Va. - A woman convicted of a felony for throwing a cup of ice into a car that cut her off in traffic was sentenced to probation instead of prison, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Jessica Hall faced between two and five years in prison after she was convicted last month of maliciously throwing a missile — the cup of ice — into an occupied vehicle. No one was injured in the incident last summer.
“The facts of this case ... suggest that the sentence in this case should be reduced,” Judge Frank A. Hoss Jr. told Hall, who thanked the judge and cried.
Hall must remain on good behavior for five years and also must pay fines and court costs.
She has been in jail since Jan. 4 and it wasn’t immediately clear whether she would be released Wednesday.
Prosecutor Daniel M. Chichester said Hall’s actions were serious, even though no one was injured. “It is important to remember that it is not what is thrown but the danger created by that act,” Chichester said.
On a sticky day in July, Hall was driving north on Interstate 95 with her children and her pregnant sister. Traffic had slowed to a crawl when, she said, another car cut her off twice, once causing her to swerve onto the shoulder.
Angered, she flung a McDonald’s cup of ice into the other car, where it flew across the driver and landed all over his girlfriend. The couple said they hadn’t even noticed Hall’s car until the cup landed.
The girlfriend, Eliza Fowle, defended their decision to report the crime but said she thought a prison sentence was too much punishment for her actions.
“This is just to me absolutely ridiculous,” Fowle told The Washington Post. Community service would have made more sense, she said. “It’s something that’s going to make someone realize ’I did screw up, and I’m going to remember this, and I’m not going to do something like this again.’ “
Hall, 25, of Jacksonville, N.C., is a mother of three and her husband is serving his third tour in Iraq. Speaking to the Post before the judge’s decision, she said she has cried every day she has spent locked up in jail.
THIS DYNAMIC DUEL
JUDGES HALEY AND HOSS
ARE HARBORING A DIRTY SECRET
BOTH OF THEM CONSPIRED TO CONVICTED AN INNOCENT WOMAN AND TRIED DESPERATELY TO COVER IT UP.
"THAT WOMAN WAS ME MARY CHARLES ROBINSON"
