Judge Rules Occupy Protesters Tweets Can Be Used By Prosecutors

Apparently, there are so many cases that have to do with the Occupy movement that New York has its own special court set up just to hear the legal cases. One man named Malcolm Harris was arrested last fall while participating in a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge. Apparently, prosecutors in the case issued a subpoena for Harrison's username and information on tweets for three months against Twitter.

The judge overseeing the case is criminal court judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr, and he ruled that Harris couldn't challenge the third-party subpoena issued to twitter. According to the judge, Harris is like a bank account holder whom the law doesn't allow to challenge the subpoena of his records served on a bank. Apparently, the judge used a bunch of hash tags in his ruling such as"#denied" and others.

The ruling could set a precedent that would allow similar subpoenas to be served against other Occupy protesters in the future. The judge allowed the prosecutors to subpoena the tweets because they could have relevance to the case by calling into question an anticipated defense by his legal team claiming that police let protesters on the bridge before their arrest in October. Harris's legal team plans to file a motion to reargue and feels the judge isn't correct in understanding law.

[via Thomson Reuters]