Facebook ordered to preserve information in Richmond County defamation case
Peggy MacDonald | CBC News | Posted: April 22, 2016 5:25 PM | Last Updated: April 22, 2016
Coun. Steve Sampson and CAO Warren Olsen plan defamation suit related to posts from three accounts
A Supreme Court of Nova Scotia judge has ordered Facebook to preserve the pages of three accounts as a defamation suit looms amid the ongoing public conflict in Richmond County over municipal council expenses.
Coun. Steve Sampson and the county's chief administrative officer, Warren Olsen, asked the court for the order on April 5.
Justice Michael Wood has ordered Facebook to "preserve the name and email address provided at registration, date and time of registration, and date, time, and IP addresses for recent logins" for three accounts.
Sampson and Olsen intend to go back to court to get the information released. Olsen told CBC they intend to use it in a defamation lawsuit.
Those accounts were created using the names Jake Sampson, Paul Burke and Jim Davis, although there are questions about whether they're real people.
Jake Sampson, for example, is a frequent poster to the page Taxpayers of Richmond County, NS, but a Facebook page under that name contains only one post and no identifying information.
Targets
Sampson and Olsen have been regular social media targets of Richmond County citizens unhappy with a decision to downsize county council, and Sampson's initial refusal to agree to a forensic audit of council and staff expenses.
Wood issued his ruling just a day before Sampson revealed he had been the target of a blackmail attempt.
An anonymous letter threatened to make public a phone call Sampson made to a male escort service while in Seattle on business several years ago, if he did not resign from council and never run for public office again.
RCMP are investigating.
Sampson and Olsen declined interview requests about the defamation case, saying they prefer to wait until it is further along.