ACORN Sues Makers Of Pimp And Prostitute Video

BALTIMORE — Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings.

The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered "extreme emotional distress."

The multimillion-dollar lawsuit seeks damages from James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the pimp and prostitute in the videos, and from conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who posted the videos on his Web site.

Comments

[OxamsRazor]

12:57 PM on 09/26/2009

This is all you need to know about ACORN and this insane de-funding nonsense. Once again, MSNBC hits it out of the park.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show#33027963

[RonInCharlotte]

12:19 AM on 09/25/2009

DISCOVERY!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA

[Principaldad]

01:03 AM on 09/25/2009

I want to know what these people are reading that makes them think that "discovery" is going to unlock untold secrets about ACORN. Discovery only applies to information that is pertinent to the case. ACORN records and other information have no bearing on whether O'Keefe and the others violated Maryland statutes in making the recordings. Even the topics discussed in the recordings arae not pertinent, only the facts of whether they were obtained iIIegally.

Just because you break a law it does not mean that you get access to everything about the victim.

[somefool]

06:29 PM on 09/25/2009

Agreed, esp since this lawsuit is only about the illegal recording. Granted, Defendants may countersue.

[mrtraffic]

05:37 PM on 10/22/2009

Because all anti-rightwing groups are secretly communist and satan worhipers. And also dont forget the idiots who think ACORN workers and there 8 dollar an hour 30 hour a week salaries are Obama's private blackwater type army. So once the files see the light of day the right-wing will be VINDICATED. Come on man have you noticed that Americans love and BELIEVE hyperbole. We used to be a nation that tought our children to "not believe everything you read." And look at our country now that we have stoped.

[ohiodem250]

11:44 PM on 09/24/2009

The only thing left to do is make sure that the work of ACORN is continued by some other organization. People from low-income communities deserve the right to vote! Who cares who does the work? But let's get busy recouping the infrastructure that ACORN has in place - it took them 40 years to build it. Before the Republicans go after their records someone needs to buy their lists! Please, ACORN, sell them! Don't hold them until they're taken from you and we lose them forever!

[Principaldad]

01:09 AM on 09/25/2009

Why do you think ACORN is going somewhere? They never received that much of their money from the government in the first place. Much of their funding comes from donations.

The Catholic Church is still doing ok and they went through much worse.

[Jayk4444]

09:57 AM on 09/27/2009

Yeah, Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck and all of those voters need to vote.
American citizens have the right to vote - and do not need an organization to 'help' them. They may register and vote withhout help.

[NealHib]

12:43 AM on 09/28/2009

For all the Daffy Ducks, Mickey Mice, etc. that registered to vote, not one has shown up at the polls to actually cast a vote.
Fact is, Ann Coulter has cast more fraudulent votes that any of Acorns cartoon characters.

[somefool]

09:43 PM on 09/24/2009

Lifted from the other thread:

The full Federal Contractor Misconduct Database can be seen here:
http://www.contractormisconduct.org/

[KellyKay]

09:42 AM on 09/25/2009

Thank you for the link!!

Blackwater is killing people, not paying people properly, smuggling weapons and get contracts renewed. Great. But talk to a person posing a a pimp, and funding is taken away. Oh yea Blackwater changed it name to "XE" ??

[somefool]

09:40 PM on 09/24/2009

Here's another angle, apparently the law to defund ACORN was written overbroadly, and may apply to Blackwater, etc, any gov. contractor involved in fraud. lol

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/the-unintended-consequenc_n_298540.html

[ejhickey]

11:42 PM on 09/24/2009

If this bill had a negative effect on Blackwater or even put them out of business would that be a bad thing? As I understand Blackwater , they are a private security company that is a substitute for the military. Privatizing essential government services like the military or the police is wrong and the sooner we end it the better.

[Principaldad]

12:56 AM on 09/25/2009

I would like to add that it would also apply to the Democratic and Republican Parties, as both have been involved in fraud in the past. No more funding for Presidential elections. More important, the clause stating that no Federal employee may promote an organization covered by the law is likely to have devastating consequences for both parties. .

[ejhickey]

03:24 AM on 09/25/2009

sounds good

[jamaicalover]

09:35 PM on 09/24/2009

The Defund Acorn Act is likely to be ruled unconstitutional, the Congressional Research

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/gop-fail-congressional-re_n_298698.html

Okay trolls, please find your way over to this post. And after you read the entire list of all the government contractors who have been found guilty of misconduct this Acorn thing is closed.

Since you seem so concerned about your tax dollars I want to see an equal amount of outrage over this.

[Melchedekan]

08:23 PM on 09/24/2009

Way to shift the blame. They are caught RED HANDED giving tax advice to a PIMP and his PROSTITUTE and their response is "YOU CAN'T CATCH US DOING THIS WITHOUT US CONSENTING TO YOU CATCHING US DOING THIS!". Disgraceful.

[somefool]

09:47 PM on 09/24/2009

Please name the highest ranking ACORN official who you think should be charged. If you can state their title.

[learntofly]

10:00 PM on 09/24/2009

While you're at it, name any inner city organization who would actually believe this guy is actually a pimp:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x371251

This guy looks like a young Republican from the burbs that raided his mother's and his sister's closets for a Halloween outfit. During the video, he actually was wearing a fedora hat with a feather in it. Inner city people take one look at that and know it is a JOKE.

[Seán O'Nilbud]

07:40 PM on 09/28/2009

You didn't see the footage then where they clearly aided and abetted the setting up of a whorehouse. You should watch that before you start in with your "inner city" guff.

[mrtraffic]

05:53 PM on 10/22/2009

I love how the girl said on camera that she got the idea for the undercover sting when she saw the "type of people going into the ACORN office" (poor black people). Why do I not believe that she was on a run and accidently ran into a very shady part of Baltimore.

[Stilts9]

08:21 PM on 09/24/2009

Here's a quick, well-written piece that puts ACORN in perspective:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/17/acorn_hysteria/index.html

[jamaicalover]

08:39 PM on 09/24/2009

Great article!

Huggie Bear and Ms. Garden Tool only exposed some bad employees. It wasn't like this happened with the CEO, President or any other high ranking official in the company. A few bad employees verse all the good employess.

This outrage is fake, fake, fake.

For those worried about your tax dollars, go protest Bush over Iraq.

[somefool]

09:57 PM on 09/24/2009

I agree, great article. Anyone with an open mind should read it.

[bigOther]

07:52 PM on 09/24/2009

I thought the Acorn worker who advised the self-professed prostitutel to declare herself a 'performance artist' to the IRS was actually correct, wasn't she? The girl was performing a role...

[bluejoni2525]

07:57 PM on 09/24/2009

In all sincerity that is true !! Very good !

[reformedrep]

07:39 PM on 09/24/2009

I work in commercial production and have produced MANY hidden camera based prank style commercials...

2 things,

NOTHING is purely cinema verite...Reality when filmed isnot real...scenarios, reactions and results are modified by the people running the show.
The shooters entered into these environments seeking a specific result...and trust me, they kept shooting until they captured exactly what they wanted. This is not Investigative, it is a set up!

These two conservative filmakers set out to develop negative evidence against acorn...no surprise they found it.

and this style of filming is in fact illegal in every state except Nevada.

[HeimeBach]

08:01 PM on 09/24/2009

Everytime you think that the democrats have caught themselves in a situation that is so blatant, so open and shut, that they couldn't possibly think they could spin their way out of, they show the world just how pathological they truly are.

[somefool]

09:48 PM on 09/24/2009

So you know they people "caught" were Dems? Where did you get that from?

[KellyKay]

09:46 AM on 09/25/2009

........and are you as outraged by the misconduct of Blackwater aka XE and the amounts of tax dollars going to the organization?

[mikeVA]

07:29 PM on 09/24/2009

Conservatives are great at manufactured outrage. Some kid, kicked out of law school, does a secret shopper video; he visits multiple sites, 99% of which call the cops on him; and then he final finds a mistake. Abramoff junior, Mr. OKeefe didn't have the guts to tell the whole story or inform his targets. Even now Fixed News fails to mention that ACORN has controls on their paper-work.

[Ramirez]

07:09 PM on 09/24/2009

ACORN has not thought this through, IMO. The filmmakers will be able to raise millions for their defense fund and ACORN has been cut off from the government money spigot. But the biggest challenge facing ACORN can be summed up in one word:

Discovery

[mikeVA]

07:31 PM on 09/24/2009

Good. I hope conservatives waste their resources on this petty nonsense, and lets see all the tapes rather than the edited versions.

[mrtraffic]

05:58 PM on 10/22/2009

Someone will defend ACORN for free just because the lawyer knows there picture will be on the news every night.

[bambideer]

06:51 PM on 09/24/2009

I don't understand how so many folks posting here are attacking the people who blew the whistle on ACORN. I certainly don't want my taxes funding corrupt organizations of any kind. By the way I'm not a rethug, however some of us here need to look at ourselves. If we only watch the right when they are in control we are only concerned with half of the problem and not doing our jobs to keep politicians honest.

[EndRacismNow]

07:04 PM on 09/24/2009

Very true. The problem is that partisans will make any excuse in their mind to defend the party of their choice and attack the opposing party. So this allows corruption to run rampant in both parties.

[MED1025]

09:28 PM on 09/24/2009

A poorly decision by an individual worker does not equal a corrupt organization. If this artiste had gotten similar responses at all ACORN offices, then it would be a systemic problem. He didn't. He isn't a wistleblower, he did a gotcha video.

[MED1025]

09:37 PM on 09/24/2009

Sorry, ...poorly made decision...

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

06:37 PM on 09/24/2009

If any of this was done in the state of Florida, the plaintiff's will have a case. It is strictly prohibited to record a person voice without either their consent or a court order, same as Maryland!

I hope ACORN cleans this guy out!

[Principaldad]

06:49 PM on 09/24/2009

The guy may also go to jaiI. It is a felony in Maryland to record someone in this way without their knowledge.

[isis]

06:36 PM on 09/24/2009

It would be a good idea to set up a government office to watch over and regulate contractors and complaints about them. It could be funded by those who have gotten contract money and it could be proportional to how much money they have gotten over the past ten years. Or maybe just no more contractors. Either way, the investigation of ACORN should be expanded to all contractors and should not raise the national debt.