DA requests Eufaula Tribune identify reader

The Eufaula Police Department and District Attorney Ben C. Reeves, Jr. want to know the identify of a Tribune reader who has commented on news stories regarding the arrest of a Lt. Steve Hanners, a veteran Eufaula Police Department employee.
Hanners has been charged with a Class B Felony for theft of property. He is accused of stealing approximately $20,000 in seized drug money from the Eufaula Police Department.
Reeves, the district attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit of Alabama, issued a subpoena on Jan. 21 that summons the Custodian of Records for the Tribune and requests he provide certified copies of all account information and identify information for the individual known as “cujo” who posted comments/reader reactions to the online news reports on Dec. 30, 2009; Jan. 9, 2010 and Jan. 13, 2010. The Web site report carried the headline “$20K believed stolen in Hanners case.” The subpoena states that it is issued pursuant to a criminal investigation and compliance may be made by furnishing the requested records to Lee Hamm, chief investigator for District Attorney Reeves.
Eufaula Police Department Chief Investigator Ronnie Dollar served the summons to Tribune General Manager Ed Trainor.
Trainor told Dollar and Chief West in a previous discussion of ‘cujo’s’ remarks that he does not have access to the information the district attorney has requested. Trainor explained that readers must register an e-mail address with the newspaper Web site to post their comments. However, most people who comment on Internet Web sites use screen names or pseudonyms that do not reveal their actual identity. Tribune employees post news reports to the Web site but do not see comments readers make until after they are posted.
“This is the first time we’ve been asked to identify anyone who posted comments to the online news reports at www.eufaulatribune.com. I don’t have reader registration information and therefore cannot personally identify anyone who posts comments. I will present any subpoena to our parent company’s legal team,” Trainor told West and Dollar.
Trainor said he has taken that action and is currently awaiting advice from company attorneys.
Trainor also advised both Dollar and West that “our First Amendment guarantee of free speech” is clearly entwined in the issue.
“I would personally prefer that all Web site comments were signed statements of opinion, just like the ‘letters to the editor’ that newspapers have traditionally published. But that stipulation has not been applied to the posting of comments on Internet Web sites. My guess is that the courts will eventually decide what the rules are.”
While “cujo’s” comments are eaily understood, they also contain several typographical or spelling errors which are not corrected in the verbatim quotes which follow:
The Web site posting from “cujo” which first caught the eye of Eufaula officers investigating the Hanners case said: “What a joke, this wasn’t a several month long investigation, this was stumbled upon by accident. Several months ago West was giving him the key to the kingdom. The morning he confessed to stealing the money he was seen at a local bank applying for a loan to replace the money, if he had received the loan you would never know about this case. Yes he is innocent until proven guilty, however he did own up to taking the money, he may decide to re-thing that confession once he speaks with a lawyer, but he did confess. I wonder how many times he took money that wasn’t at the police department and in somebody’s pocket during an arrest? He lived pretty good for a man on a police officers salery. This man is no more than a common theif and should be treated as such. You can get more news on this story from out of town papers and the internet than you can from the local newspaper. That’s a sad man in the posted picture to be so innocent.”
On Jan. 9, “cujo” posted again. This remark reads: “Cujo barks. West must come clean with all dismissed officers since he took over as chief. Many have been released or reassigned and the reasons never reveled. West continues to speak of his watch, maybe its time for him to clock out? If he didn’t know about the 20K, he should have. He gets paid to know. Why was 20K even stored at the PD? Maybe it was an inside job.”
A third comment from “cujo” posted on Jan. 13 reads: “Cujo’s banrk will not be euthanized until this department comes clean. The citizens of Eufaula demand and expect the truth regarding the police department. West, the more you remain silient the more this looks like a cover up. What we want to know is how much other money has been taken in the past? Is there a current audit? Is it your policy to keep this kind of cash on hand? Why was it there in the first place? What precentage of the blame lies with you for giving this man free access to this amount of money? You may fool the public by claiming this was a lengthy investigation when in fact you lucked up to catch him. I know this for a fact. Why if you have been investigating him for so long did you give him a promotion several months ago, head of the tatical team? In closing where was the brain child, Mrs. Trawick, when 20K of the cities money was involved? Wake up Eufaula it’s time for change.”