Anonymous email trouble

[skierboy718]

I recently sent an anonymous email from a Yahoo! account that I created using a nondescript name and no physical address. The message contained some damning information about the recipient's subordinates that would force the recipient to take action toward those individuals, but more importantly, it would give the recipient some notice about what would inevitably become public eventually. I sent the message anonymously to protect the well being of a friend who is also one of the recipient's subordinates. A day after sending the message, my friend told me that she was called into a meeting with her superior (the recipient of my email) and the recipient's superior. During the meeting, the two supervisors directly accused my friend of sending the message and maliciously attacked my friend's character for "ratting out" her peers. They also told her that they WOULD find out from the IP information (which indicated the message was sent from my home town) who sent the message and essentially bring them down legally.

Is there any legal issue with sending an email anonymously from an online email messaging system? In other words, can a person get in legal trouble for sending an anonymous email that simply contains damning information?

Can my friend take any action against her supervisors for accusing in a hostile way of sending the message even though they had knowledge that the message was actually sent from a computer several states away?

Need some help here. Thanks.

 

[mafioso]

They can easily know the IP address and some things………But that would not still prove who sat infront of the computer and sent the email. No prosecutor would waste tax payer money on such a problem………There is no prosecutable crime (assuming it is all about work gossip and issues)……Nothing to deal with harming anyone or leading to committing a crime…...You are okay. If your friend is being accused, all what she can do is to encourage them to trace the location of the IP address…………it would show another state so she would be okay and no longer accused. Your friend can't do much against them for accusing her. The information probably was slanted and making her the main suspect. More so they have a free speech right to infer from the mail and draw conclusions on possible suspects.