"I was humiliated beyond what 'no man could endure"

By J.K. Dineen

Court TV

 

Mike ******e fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom.

 

But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing."

 

"We gave him crap," said ******e, a 33-year-old welder in Fayette, Ala. "I'm not going to deny it. I teased him and he teased me back. He gave it back better than he ever got it." A generation ago, such petty personal beefs might have been settled with fists outside the corner bar, but now it's the Internet age — and Ohio resident George Gillespie instead filed a $25,000 lawsuit against two erstwhile cyber chums he met in the sprawling 900-room, mostly anonymous society that makes up AOL's chat universe.

 

Gillespie, 53, claims that ******e and Bob Charpentier, a 52-year-old Oregon resident, insulted him and harassed him in the AOL chatroom called "Romance — Older Men" to the point where it inflicted "severe emotional distress and physical injury that is of a nature no reasonable man could be expected to endure it."The complaint, expected in court on Jan. 31 for a pretrial conference, also names AOL as a defendant for allowing the alleged harassment to take place.

 

Gillespie alleges that the duo intruded into his "private affairs." The complaint states that ******e actually drove from Alabama to Ohio to photograph the plaintiff's home, which he then posted on the Web. He also allegedly went to the courthouse in Medina to dig up personal dirt on Gillespie, which he then also disseminated over the Internet.

 

The case is not simply "someone conversing in a chatroom" but also involves "harassing someone in Ohio," which gives Ohio courts jurisdiction, according to Gillespie's lawyers.

 

"Had the defendants stayed in the chatrooms, there would be no jurisdiction here, case closed" Gillespie's attorney Theodore Lesiak stated in the complaint. "Defendant did not."

 

But ******e said he works 60 hours a week at an autobody shop and laughed at the notion that he would drive from Alabama to Ohio to take pictures of Gillespie's house.

 

"I have never been to Ohio and I have absolutely no desire to go to Ohio," ******e said. "There is nothing there — the Cincinnati Bengals are there, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame maybe, and that's about it."

 

Even if ******e did take a trip to Ohio, posting a picture of someone's house on the Internet does not violate privacy laws, according to Chris Hoofnagle, attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

 

"Those norms require the aggressor to engage in behavior that is highly offensive to a reasonable person," he said. "Taking a picture of somebody's house and putting it up on the Web is not that."

 

Hoofnagle said Gillespie's emotional distress claim will also be tough to prove.

 

"We live in a rough society, as compared to Europe, where offending someone or directly cursing or attacking their dignity can give you a cause of action," he said.

 

Power Struggle in 'Romance — Older Men'

 

Charpentier said he first encountered Gillespie more than five years ago and at first, the two chatters were friendly. But Charpentier says he quickly became disenchanted by what he saw as Gillespie's mean streak.

 

Things really turned ugly four years ago when Charpentier traveled to Kentucky to meet another chatroom regular, a woman who was also a friend of Gillespie's. The blind date did not go particularly well, and when Charpentier returned to he discovered that Gillespie had gone on the attack.

 

"He just came in slamming on me, saying all kinds of derogatory crap: that I was a fat, bald, broke old man who sits around in a rusted wheelchair," said Charpentier, who has a chronic back injury. "I don't even own a wheelchair."

 

Charpentier, who has filed a response seeking to reserve the right to file a $125,000 countersuit against Gillespie, said Gillespie threatened to kill him and "made sick and disgusting remarks about the passing of my grandmother."

 

"He is an AOL computer thug, that is all he is," Charpentier said.

 

******e characterized the dispute as a petty power struggle. He said Gillespie was the de facto leader of the "Romance — Older Men" chatroom, and didn't like it when he and Charpentier challenged his authority.

 

But ******e said he never took the chatroom antics personally — until he was served with a lawsuit.

 

"I don't know how four years of bantering back and forth led to this insane nonsense," he said. "It's just the Internet, for God's sake. It's nothing important."

 

Michael Gordon, an attorney for AOL, declined to comment, saying, "This is just the beginning stages of this thing."

 

Megan Gray, a Washington D.C.-based intellectual property attorney who specializes in cyber issues, called it "a loser of a case." She said the Communications Decency Act gives AOL immunity from chatroom misconduct.

 

"AOL cannot be held liable for the actions of people on the site," she said.

 

She also suggested the case against ******e and Charpentier was doomed.

 

"The Internet is such a vibrant, young medium, these types of cases are not taken seriously," she said.

 

***s

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

 

 

Omg you Insulted my E-Peen. Yuo are so sued Sir.

this is why AOL comes with the block feature.

this is why AOL comes with the block feature.

yeah no shit, what a dumbfuck.

 

and then he sues them for not being smart enough to use it.

I think the government should execute the man who sued. Then everyone will know that being a giant pussy, and trying to sue for something so stupid will not be tolerated, and you will die.

 

 

Problem solved! I win :D!

lol, the defendant should be getting in trouble over this, lol, if that new law they came out with is actually valid. Thats pretty funny though, hahaha

lol, the defendant should be getting in trouble over this, lol, if that new law they came out with is actually valid. Thats pretty funny though, hahaha

I got the impression that the new law was mainly for stopping anonymous advertising and spam e-mails.

lol, the defendant should be getting in trouble over this, lol, if that new law they came out with is actually valid. Thats pretty funny though, hahaha

 

I can't help feeling the last bit sounds sarcastic, even though it isn't

']I think the government should execute the man who sued. Then everyone will know that being a giant pussy, and trying to sue for something so stupid will not be tolerated, and you will die.

 

 

Problem solved! I win :D!

Probably the most sensible solution

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA