Teri Buhl — 'Jurno,' Private Tweeter And Lawsuit Enthusiast — Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail For Harassment

Legal Issues

from the cue-angry-email/comment-in-3... dept

This is most likely the last Teri Buhl update, but it is with a small amount of schadenfreude that I point your attention to this news item from the New Canaan Journal.

Teri Buhl, who was found guilty on misdemeanor charges of harassment and breach of peace, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, one-year probation and a strict order not to interact with the victims’ family, in Norwalk Superior Court today.

The New Canaan woman was accused of harassing her then-boyfriend’s daughter by posting parts of the girl’s private journals online in 2010. Buhl, 40, was acquitted of interfering with a police investigation.

It has been rather quiet on the Buhl front for the past couple of months and the threatened lawsuits (of which there were several — ranging from claims of defamation to supposed copyright infringement) have failed to materialize. Buhl’s claims that her public tweets were non-publishable failed the Internet Laugh Test, as did her follow-up claims that her copyrighted Twitter profile photo (no, not the photo of her — the photo in the background — read her side of the story for full details) could not be published without her permission.

Buhl’s lawyer has stated he will appeal the verdict, as one does. He also stated, “She’s not going to jail,” and that he’s known her for 25 years and can “attest to her character.” The girl whose father she was dating can probably attest to Buhl’s character as well, seeing as her diary pages were dug out of the back of her dresser drawer and publicly displayed on Facebook. (If you’re interested in reading the arrest warrant, it’s archived here.)

Still, a brief stint in jail doesn’t necessarily mean no lawsuits will be filed. There is something of a tradition of certain prisoners using their downtime to file lawsuit after meritless lawsuit. One particularly determined inmate filed over 2,600 lawsuits in six years. But I imagine Teri won’t end up serving time. This is a first offense and even though the judge said he “just couldn’t excuse” Buhl’s actions (when rejecting her lawyers’ request for probation only), once the appeals process wraps up, I don’t see her ending up with much more than probation. Buhl has had a chance to observe (firsthand) the criminal side of the legal system. I wonder if she’s still in a hurry to acquaint herself with the civil side.

Now that this is “on the books,” we’re looking at someone who believes they can control the dissemination of their public statements while simultaneously holding the belief that publicly displaying the contents of a teenager’s diary is perfectly fine, as long as you’re a hard-hitting “jurno” chasing down a story.

Filed Under: teri buhl