Rightwing dirty-trickster and convicted federal criminal James O’Keefe and his accomplice Hannah Giles are being sued for invasion of privacy by a San Diego ACORN worker.
Juan Carlos Vera was fired by the 4-decade old anti-poverty, pro-democracy community organization after deceptively edited and secretly recorded video tapes of a meeting Vera had with O’Keefe and Giles were released by the pair and published on Republican propagandist Andrew Breitbart’s websites. The tapes were then widely aired on Fox “News”, as well as non-Rightwing media outlets.
Vera is suing for at least $75,000 in accordance with California’s Invasion of Privacy Act which, according to the short, four-page complaint [PDF] filed at week’s end in U.S. District Court, “prohibits the recording of confidential communications without the consent of all participants where there is an objectively reasonable expectation that the conversation is not being overheard or recorded.”
In April of this year, CA Attorney General Jerry Brown completed a five-month probe into O’Keefe/Giles/Breitbart’s secretly-taped ACORN videos and found “no criminality” by any of the ACORN workers seen on what he described as “severely edited” tapes.
He did, however, find that O’Keefe and Giles themselves were likely to have violated California law, and could see private litigation brought against them…
According to the CA Penal Code, as detailed in Vera’s complaint, “any person who intentionally and without consent of all parties to a confidential communication records such conversation is guilty of a crime, punishable by imprisonment in state prison or county jail.”
However, in a deal with O’Keefe and Giles, the AG granted the pair immunity from criminal prosecution under the state’s Invasion of Privacy Act in exchange for the full, unedited videos which they had previously refused to release. The AG’s office reviewed them and then released the unedited tapes in full at the conclusion of their investigation.
“The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality,” said Brown in a statement when he released his report. “Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor.”
As The BRAD BLOG has documented for many months now, the activists edited their tapes to appear as if O’Keefe dressed as and represented himself as a pimp to ACORN workers. He did neither. In fact, he represented himself as Giles boyfriend, hoping to save her from an abusive pimp. Moreover, the highly edited tapes were edited to give the impression that ACORN workers advised the pair on how to break the law. Here’s just one example of how O’Keefe and Giles misrepresented what had actually occurred in the meetings and on their deceptively cropped tapes.
The blatantly dishonest hoax, however — amplified and enabled by a wholly uncritical mainstream media — was brutally effective and destructive, coming as part of the years-long assault by the GOP and the Right against ACORN, largely for having had the temerity to legally register hundreds of thousands of low and middle-income (read: Democratic-leaning) voters to legally cast a vote and participate in their own democracy.
Vera’s complaint goes on to note that the eavesdropping and recording provisions of the Penal Code, Section 632, “defines confidential communication to include “any communication carried on in circumstances as may reasonably indicate that any party to the communication desires it to be confined to the parties thereto.”
“Although the Act contains exemptions for particular individuals or circumstances,” the complaint reads, “no exemption exists for filmmakers, the media, or journalists.”
In his 28-page report [PDF], the CA AG explained that since O’Keefe and Giles received immunity from prosecution after providing the complete tapes, they “did not determine if they violated California’s Invasion of Privacy Act when they recorded the ACORN employees. If the circumstances meet the requirements of the Act, the ACORN employees may be able to bring a private suit against O’Keefe and Giles for recording a confidential conversation without consent.”
Former San Diego ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera, has now filed such a private suit against O’Keefe and Giles.
In addition to naming O’Keefe and Giles, the suit also specifies unnamed defendants “DOES 1-20 inclusive,” allowing for the plaintiff to add additional co-defendants later, as the need arises throughout the discovery phase of the case. As the secret video tapes made in California were the last among a number of such tapes made by O’Keefe and Giles (the others on the East Coast), and as O’Keefe and Giles’ employer/pimp Andrew Breitbart lives in Los Angeles — and has lied about the tapes in the past, as seen in both his newspaper column and on video tape — it seems quite possible that he would have been aware of the video taping in advance of the California meetings, at the very least.
If so, we’ll be neither surprised nor saddened to see Breitbart named as one of those DOES in the not-too-distant future.
ED NOTE: Due to an editorial error, the article above has been modified from the originally published version.
UPDATE 7/13/10: Maddow covers the lawsuit, hilariously. ‘There were crimes on those ACORN tapes! By O’Keefe and Giles!’ Watch the video here…
See Vera’s complaint [PDF], along with RAW STORY’s coverage for more details and additional background.
The complete, unedited video and audio tapes from O’Keefe and Giles’ meeting with Vera, are available below, courtesy of the California Attorney General’s office…
- San Diego 1 [
VIDEO 167890 kb / 40 min] - San Diego 2 [ VIDEO 70339 kb / 16 min]
- San Diego 3 [
AUDIO 20998 kb / 40 min] - San Diego 4 [ AUDIO 4797 kb / 9 min]
Do you think this has legs and will go anywhere? I hope something happens.
Unfortunately, $75,000 is a drop in the bucket for the billionaire-funded scam artists who perpetuated the ACORN hoax. I suspect that they will offer a settlement long before Giles and O’Keefe have to submit to deposition testimony.
The real victims of the hoax, the working poor, who relied upon ACORN for a wide range of essential services, including the organization’s efforts to secure a living wage for all citizens and protection from predatory lenders and phony foreclosure assistance scams, not to mention the right to vote, will be without a remedy.
See The Real Targets of the ACORN Smear Campaigns: Verifiable Truth, American Democracy
AG Jerry Brown’s failure to prosecute these clowns could come back to haunt him in the upcoming race for CA governor.
Give ’em hell JC Vera!
I hope that this time, justice really does prevail (no deals and no pleas… just expose Okeefe and Giles for the lying criminals that they are, and have them serve hard time for their very real and dirty crimes.)
I am so proud for Juan Carlos taking these evil s.o.b.s to task!
OKeefe, Breitbart and Giles never expected the poorer Americans who worked for ACORN to ever stand up to their editing equipment, their political connections, their rabidly ferocious following and their financial backing.
I hope JC Vera and KC Russel get justice not just for themselves, but for everyone who was so hideously maligned by O’Queefe’s fallaciously edited tapes and bold-faced lies.
That little wanna-be-McCarthy mongrel needs to take some responsibility.
He cant just have Breitbart “drip†out false “evidence†which accuses decent people of some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and not be expected to either honestly stand by his work or to be held accountable for it. (James has done neither since his bogus little campaign began… he’s as much a coward as a liar.)
James and Hannah both lied to Vera, and abused his sense of compassion.
The unedited tapes reveal that Oqueef and Piles told Vera that “Kenya/Eden†was fleeing a dangerous pimp, and had to save her charges from certain peril at said pimps murderous hands.
Vera tried to help them with this problem and even tried to get the police involved.
They took this mans good sense of decency and warped it something it never was (all through the grace of their FinalCut Pro equipment, and their uncontrollable habit of lying.)
They cut out the important references to “Sonny the pimp†from their posted tapes, and removed anything that could have been seen as exculpatory.
Furthermore, they stood fiercely against having to answer any honest questions about the whole matter.
They posted a mangled version of their conversations with people who they cornered into helping them find shelter.
They then twisted their data and had the cruel audacity to slander Vera as a child molesting pervert. HOW UTTERLY DEVIOUS!
Even after it has been revealed that JC Vera reported the whole matter to the police, and that Oqueef and Giles had lied about the conversation with him, James refuses to update the story (some “journalistâ€, eh?)
He continues to peddle the proven lie that JC Vera was helping him traffic in exploited children… those evil s.o.b.s don’t even have the decency to correct their header for the posted tape!!! (Ironic, considering how many bone head retractions James demands for himself… where’s the “correcton Alpaca” here?)
What truly awful people!!!
As much as Oqueef’s own promoter Glenn Beck flies off the handle by trying to paint anyone left of far-far-right as a “naziâ€, I find it completely ironic that Beck supports the exact smear methods employed by Goebbles and utilized by O’Creep.
While James, Andrew and Hannah all strive to be their own modern-day Machiavellis, and while they aim to hurl us all into some balkanized media-dark-age where accountability is non-existent, lets all hope that justice does, indeed, prevail this time.
Breitbart made the internet the judge, jury and executioner against a decent organization that helped poor Americans.
He made youtube his own kangaroo court in his campaign against ACORN, and even forced congress to issue an unconstitutional ban (lifted once it was revealed that it might hurt Haliburton and KBR) using not a court of law, but a YouTube message board!!!!
And now Hannah is begging her followers for money to meet her legal fees. And James is so well-connected, that I’m sure Papa Thiel will drop another 10 grand for his defense.
That being said, I hope that Oqueef causes his supporters to break the bank on him.
He’s already drained enough public funds through court-costs and investigative fees, and he’s already bled more than enough out of his sucker tea-bag following… lets see how much more money they are willing to throw after this liar.
BTW, does anyone know how the suit filed by Katherine Conway Russel is developing?
O’Keefe and Giles have immunity from criminal prosecution. So would this lawsuit be under civil law?
Also, I don’t see how the 4th paragraph from the end, (indented and highlited quote from AG) is relevant to the suit against O’Keefe and Giles, since it is about possible liability of Acorn, not liability of O’Keefe and Giles. Granted that the suit may get expanded to include employees of Acorn, but your writing makes it imply that Breitbart could be pulled in as a defendant. It doesn’t look to me as though the AG had anything to say about that.
So can you please clarify or explain?
UCC @ 4 asked:
Correct. This is a civil suit against them.
You are right. It is not. It was a late-night editorial error on my part. Have removed the accidentally quoted graf, and clarified. Thanks for catching it, and sorry for the confusion there!
In answer to UCC Love-of-Truth Guy @4. This is a civil lawsuit brought for damages by a private citizen.
Brown’s immunity only extends to a criminal prosecution against Giles and O’Keefe. It does not shield them from this invasion of privacy/false light lawsuit. Brown granted the immunity so he could gain immediate access to the unedited videotapes, but he really did not have to since he could have subpoened the tapes as part of a criminal investigation.
Not sure which paragraph you are referring to since there are none which are indented but if you are referring to the paragraph in which AG Brown took note of the “selective edits,” that would have a direct bearing on Juan Carlos Vera’s allegations that they deliberately portrayed him in a false light–a deliberate deception on the part of these two right-wing scam artists which Vera claims cost him his job.
Of course, I realize that deliberate deception has become so common a practice not only by the hard-right media but by much of the MSM that the typical tea-bagger thinks its an accepted practice.
Oh, I see where Brad removed the paragraph.
Man I would love to be a fly on the wall when they get Breitbart in a deposition!
Don’t need to be a “fly on the wall” Rvrctyrdnck @7. If it gets to that, Vera’s attorney’s can notice that it will be videotaped and that videotape, along with the reporter’s transcript, could become part of the public record.
Now that would be video worthy of MSM coverage equal to what was given the Faux Hooker tape!
Don’t hold your breath. The MSM only serves extremist interests.
Perhaps O’Keefe can’t be criminally charged but what about Hannity and others who committed slander and libel against an innocent man destroying his life. I would hope that Mr. Vera gets a good lawyer and sues Skeletor (Murdoch) and his Empire of Lies for millions.
As for O’Keefe and friends they were posting as prostitutes and pimps that is exactly what they are.
Since they more than likely won’t face any punishment or even MSM criticism, and any awards won’t be comin out of their pockets, I gotta say I would love to smack O’Keefe right upside the head. Just a nice open-hand smack-aroo. And as for the Hannah the wannabe hooker, maybe ‘accidentally’ spill a drink or two on her in a bar and ruin her night and hopefully some new outfit. Tragic for her, I’m sure. Or just order her a cement mixer to shut her up for a few minutes(bailey’s and lime juice- gag drink, turns solid) Breitbart… tie him up in a room and make him listen to Mike Malloy for 24 hours straight. Ah, but only a dream. Juvenile, certainly. But don’t tell me that wouldn’t feel good!.
It seems to me the efforts of Jim and Hannah have shown multiple ACORN employees to have engaged in criminal conduct. I am outraged the DOJ has failed to prosecute the ACORN scofflaws!!!!!!!
Keep up the needed work guy, evil will not win the day as long we fight it.
Vinnie, for the sake of honesty, you need to clue up on this whole thing.