Quote of the day–Matthew Bean

This case just gets more and more interesting.

Matthew Bean
March 29, 2007
[Bean is my lawyer in the PNNL case. Today the bad guys got a court order to demand we return 17 DVD’s (and destroy all the copies) we had obtained as part of discovery. A lot of the information they gave us last week were printouts of my blog, nothing new for me to find there. Subtract that and the portions of the personnel file I already had and they took back more than 99% of the information they supplied to us. I had to leave work and get them to the lawyers office as quickly as I could. They sent someone to pick them up. Like I said before, I was shocked they hadn’t destroyed some of the stuff they gave me. They might now. Fortunately for me the more data of theirs they suppress or destroy the more of the total evidence consists of my log files. Yes, they are backed up in numerous safe places and I’m adding another location tomorrow. I was right to go into full overdrive mode to get through as much data as quickly as I could. As I told Barb today, they can’t legally delete my mind.–Joe]

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9 thoughts on “Quote of the day–Matthew Bean

  1. How can they demand the destruction of relevant materials subject to discovery? Are they claiming it’s classified information? Logic (yeah, I know…..) would dictate that once they deliver the material to you it’s a part of the record, wouldn’t it?

    Sounds like they are attempting to cover their tracks, after looking back and seeing that they left a swath of malfeasance that is visible from near-earth orbit.

  2. They do not claim it was classified. They claim there was material which was For Official Use Only (FOUO).

    This is true. There was some FOUO material in what they gave me. Had they only requested the deletion of that material after I had noted the document titles for reference I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. They didn’t. They demanded, as I said, over 99% of the discovery materials they supplied.

    And as you suggest I think it was enough to make my case clear from “near-earth” orbit. But I don’t think it matters that much. The more data they suppress the less data they have to claim I did something wrong. Either way I win.

    Quick tutorial on classified/unclassfied/etc:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information_in_the_United_States
    http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Classified+information+in+the+United+States

    It will all be settled by the court.

    Last night I went to sleep by the gentle flicker of burning DVDs in the fireplace next to my bed…

  3. What does matter about not having access is that I can’t as easily prove illegal activity on their part in another situation unrelated to my wrongful termination lawsuit. I had the proof up on the screen in front of me. I only had to press the “Print” button and send it off to the proper authorities before I got the court order. I thought I had more time…

  4. A court order to suppress evidence that was given to you without coercion. Interesting.

  5. I haven’t actually seen the court order. My lawyer was told what it generally said then got a copy later in the day after I met him. My lawyer’s advice was to returned the DVDs they had given us, as per their request, and destroyed the copies I was starting to make. Once I actually get the court order in hand I’ll probably scan it and post it for everyone to see.

  6. do you think an update about this is bruce shneier-worthy?

    too soon to call the local news? or nat’l news? what does your lawyer think?

    i think at least a brief email to b. schneier might be worth it. after all, wasn’t it one of your postings on your site re: email from you to schneier about security — that the felons at pnnl demanded you remove from your site?

  7. Do be sure to speak with your attorney in detail about the evidence of illegal activity you saw. If it’s at all relevant to show a pattern and practice of employment discrimination or even a willingness on the part of that division of PNNL to break the law, you may be able to get it back with some creative lawyering.

  8. Steph, we’re going to play this out in the legal channels first. Once they get slapped around a little bit by the judge we’ll point out all their childish tricks to the press while trying to avoid the merits of the case.

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