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Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 21:22:42 -0400
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From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
Subject: Spencer: Time to squash courthouse
=?iso-8859-1?Q?‘bugging’?= issue
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD75&dept_id168&newsid636090&PAGF1&rfi
05/14/2006
Spencer: Time to squash courthouse 'bugging' issue
I will not say exactly where I met Delaware County President Judge
Ken Clouse Friday morning to discuss his recent sweep of courthouse
phones for electronic bugging devices. I will only say that it was at
a secure location where we both could be reasonably sure our
discussion would not be listened in on by Peter Porcupine or the NSA.
We got off to a slightly rocky start with him saying a couple of
disparaging things about my beloved employer of last 22 years. But I
quickly got him back to the issue at hand.
The issue was this: Why did he believe it was necessary to have the
courthouse phones swept for bugs?
"The genesis of this sweep was a feeling on my part that certain
information of a confidential nature had the potential for leaking
from my office," he said. And that information concerned the H.
Beatty Chadwick case.
So, he didn't have all the phones in the courthouse swept for bugs?
No, just the phones in his chambers and the "areas under (his)
control," he said.
And no listening devices were found?
None.
Clouse said he had the sweep done simply as a precautionary measure
at the suggestion of a county law-enforcement official. He did not
name the official. And he would not disclose just what the
confidential information was that got out.
"It's confidential," he said. And just because someone
inappropriately leaked it out, doesn't mean he can now talk about it.
I told Clouse that I had spoken to the two main attorneys involved in
the Chadwick case and both said they were unaware of any confidential
information about the case getting out to the general public.
To which the judge replied, "Of course, they're not going to tell you."
Despite his "suspicions" about how the information got out, he said
he wanted to be able to rule out a direct leak from his office.
He went on to point out that as president judge he is the supervising
judge of the grand jury whose business is always strictly
confidential and for very good reasons.
When grand juries are looking into particular cases, lives and
reputations are at stake. Confidentially is a must because when it is
breached bad things happen, sometimes to innocent people.
Clouse cited the Amy Willard case. Before Arthur Bomar was arrested,
the grand jury heard testimony concerning a Villanova student who
police wanted to question. That information leaked out and within
hours a bunch of TV news vans and reporters were on the street where
his family lived while helicopters hovered overhead.
(I recalled that day very well because I was there.)
Clouse said that though it turned out the student had "absolutely
nothing to do with the case," the family ended up moving because they
were "hounded by the press." All thanks to a leak of information that
was supposed to remain confidential.
It was for these reasons he ordered the sweep, he said, and no other.
Certainly not to ferret out some professed county employee and
anonymous blogger who writes nasty gossip about the judge's love life.
But because some people have suggested a connection between the two,
I asked him about the blog.
"I don't read the thing," he said. "Look, people have a right to say
whatever they want, though it may be slanderous and libelous -- and
note they do it anonymously. When people come and tell me about
(what's being written) I tell them I don't want to know about it. I'm
not going to dignify it with a response."
So his ordering of the sweep had nothing to do with his trying to
catch the anonymous blogger?
No, he said.
And nobody at the courthouse is suspected or being investigated for
the leak in question?
"No," he said. "Nobody at the courthouse. ..That's not happening."
When County Councilman Andy Reilly first heard about the
Clouse-ordered sweep of the phones, which cost under $2,000 to
perform, he promised to have a conversation with the judge about it.
Last week, Reilly told me he had that conversation and was satisfied
Clouse had acted within his authority to make sure his chambers were secure.
Reilly and Clouse have butted heads before over budgetary matters. On
this one, though, there doesn't seem to be much disagreement.
Friday, Clouse said what he did is common practice in business and
other government agencies.
"Truthfully," he said, "I don't see what the big deal is."
And I hate to say it (because I like needling Judge Clouse) but after
talking to him, neither do I.
Gil Spencer's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail
gspe..._at_delcotimes.com
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