An Appeal For Justice

Readers, on Tuesday afternoon, May 19, 2009, Wind Gap, Northampton County District "Justice" Adrianne L. Masut found me guilty of summary harassment and ordered me to pay one hundred dollars ($100.00).

It was an, um, surprising verdict, since the Complaining Witness, Bernie O'Hare, presented no evidence and no documentation to prove his claim that "Bill Villa posted over 500 comments" at his blog on 9/29/08.

And don't forget: the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt was on O'Hare.

So we were expecting to see account records from Internet service providers, and expert testimony on IP numbers, and hard copy matchings (a-ha!) of those 500 comments w/ "Bill Villa's IP number!"

Nah.

Instead, O'Hare just breezily told the Magistrate that he has a "sitemeter" on his blog and that it was his "opinion" that "Bill Villa posted those comments" and that he was "positive Bill Villa did it, Your Honor."

And this was good enough for DJ Adrianne Masut who pronounced me guilty of summary harassment based solely on O'Hare's word.

Yup.

Curiously, DJ Masut skirted completely around (and didn't rule on) the "repeated invitations to fist fight" and "break your jaw" stuff in O'Hare's harassment complaint (i.e., the "flashy" items O'Hare used to hoodwink easily duped NorCo DA John Morganelli into "OK-ing" O'Hare's complaint forward and into Magisterial Court), likely because my attorney had earlier revealed those falsely sworn affidavit claims to be flat-out lies on O'Hare's part. But O'Hare's tarnished word was "gold" on the 500 comments ... as DJ Masut saw it.

We filed an appeal immediately.

Stay tuned for Round 2 in front of a Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Judge in 6 months or so ...

UpDate: REVERSED ON APPEAL IN 20 SECONDS

UpDate: O'HARE SUED IN LEHIGH COUNTY