How do I obtain a subpoena to discover the identity of an anonymous stalker?

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StalkedPerson

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How do I obtain a subpoena to discover the identity of an anonymous stalking/harassing email user whose email host is in the state of California while I reside in Florida?

I would like to file criminal charges and obtain a restraining order against a stalking individual and pursue them in civil court if possible. Blocking and attempting to ignore the offender is not possible; however, they have used the same email account created with a personally threatening name in order to say despicable sexual remarks, physically demoralizing comments, as well as making me feel that they are constantly tracking me, watching me in person, and "coming for" me.

I know many many people and am somewhat involved in advertising in a very competitive market, so I am an easy target for this type of thing. This has happened to me before, and I do not know if it is originating from the same individual or not, but it has caused me great emotional distress, and this has revived this fear.

As defined on the following site under Florida, the offender meets the criteria for stalking: esia.net/State_Stalking_Laws.htm

The initial problem is: The email host masks their headers so I cannot trace the IP to narrow down the suspects so that I can better plan a course of legal action.

*****The resulting main challenge is: The only way the email host will release any identifiable user information is if they receive a subpoena.*****

If I can obtain this, I can move forward.

Also worth mentioning:

There is no court case because I have yet to identify and prove the offender.

I don't know if I can file a complaint with the police either (or who I should file with) also because I have yet to identify and prove the offender.
 
1) You cannot file a criminal charge in charge - only the DA can. If this is a violation of stalking laws (which I don't know if it qualifies - is there a death treat?) then perhaps you should start by filing a police report.

2) You can file a civil action and also potentially obtain a TRO. you may want to hire an attorney to do so in order to expedite. A clerk in the court can help you with obtaining a "John Doe" subpoena. For example, here is the law regarding the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to send a subpoena for copyright infringement purposes:

§ 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online

(h) Subpoena To Identify Infringer.— (1) Request.— A copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner's behalf may request the clerk of any United States district court to issue a subpoena to a service provider for identification of an alleged infringer in accordance with this subsection.
(2) Contents of request.— The request may be made by filing with the clerk—
(A) a copy of a notification described in subsection (c)(3)(A);
(B) a proposed subpoena; and
(C) a sworn declaration to the effect that the purpose for which the subpoena is sought is to obtain the identity of an alleged infringer and that such information will only be used for the purpose of protecting rights under this title.
(3) Contents of subpoena.— The subpoena shall authorize and order the service provider receiving the notification and the subpoena to expeditiously disclose to the copyright owner or person authorized by the copyright owner information sufficient to identify the alleged infringer of the material described in the notification to the extent such information is available to the service provider.
 
There are a couple ways to go about it. I would file a police report if the actions are actually criminal in nature. The details of this would be interesting. You seemed to have picked up a stalker who knows you but you don't know them.

While a death threat is not necessary for stalking some sort of intimidation is. It would be very relevant as to how this relationship started. I suspect you met this fellow on the internet, had some level of "relationship" and you rejected him for some reason and now he pesters you. This certainly could be criminal stalking.

Do a police report. The ISP will release the name and address of the person with the account to the Police and they can call or contact the offender. Usually that is the end of it. The offender finds out he is not that anonymous and the offending actions stop. I would think that would be enough for you unless there was a whole lot more to this person than we know.

Civilly I would file a case against the ISP and John or Jane Doe. Use the Civil Process to get a subpoena and when they cooperate and you find the perpetrator, drop the ISP as a party.

Good luck.
 
The statute that the OP provided seemed to state that to qualify for "stalking" the threat of serious imminent harm is necessary. It's common in most statutes. Most importantly, nobody in the police department or elsewhere will take this seriously if there isn't such a threat - they have far more on their agenda that is a higher priority. This is both law and reality to set expectations.

"...with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily harm."
 
thelawprofessor said:
The statute that the OP provided seemed to state that to qualify for "stalking" the threat of serious imminent harm is necessary."
Click to expand...

Taken from the link in the original posting:

Misdemeanor: "(2) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person commits the offense of stalking, a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083."

Felony: "(3) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person, and makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury, commits the offense of aggravated stalking, a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084."

Maybe this situation falls in the misdemeanor category. Personally, I feel as if it should be the felony category because I am in fear of bodily harm through what the individual has implied; however, the individual dances around words that explicitly depict what they specifically are going to do to me, besides "come for me". Additionally, they say that "someone" (without saying if it is them or not) will be anally sodomizing me soon.

I would post the exact words, but I fear this being searchable online and the person finding me here.
 
I'm not trying to say you deserve this, but I am looking for the other side of the story. This person, did not appear out of the blue and start harassing you. I'm not sure that the story is important, because if you are done with whatever relationship (and I use the term loosely) you had with him? then he has a duty to leave you the hell alone. I do however get the overwhelming feeling that a lot of information is being left out.

If he is stalking you, go to the police. Forget suing him. That smacks heavily of a scorned woman. If you are afraid of him you do not want to have any contact with him. Restraining orders and police are in order. If you want to punish him for what he is doing , then I strongly suspect there is more to the story.

Good luck.
 
First, as this is likely a misdemeanor and the state of Florida is unlikely to extradite the suspect from California, the DA is probably not going to take the time and effort to obtain a subpoena for the ISP information.

Second, on the off chance that they DO seek a subpoena or a search warrant, it may not be sufficient to indicate the individual, only the location or the computer via IP. It might take more research than the police or the DA are willing to do to narrow down the users of a computer across the country, particularly if the ISP is one that does not require much information to register or it is a free or group account.

Third, and most important, serving someone in California from Florida is going to be a royal pain and likely rather pricey. Plus, there will be no real way to enforce the order.

So, while it is possible, and you should certainly at least report it to the police, do not expect anything to come of it. Plus, they are not going to do your private investigation for you. if you want to find out the person to sue him or seek a restraining order, you might want to go with a P.I. from the outset.

My recommendation would be to relegate his e-mails to the "spam" folder. That would effectively end the problem.

Also note that the laws you posted had to do with Stalking,not, cyber-stalking. Even assuming the two statutes have similar language, it will be hard to argue a credible threat of harm from someone some 2,500 miles away.

- Carl
 
Concerning cyberstalking and cyberbullying, which some states do have statutes against since the Missouri woman's cyberbullying contributed to the death of a high school cheerleader, let's say someone particpated in Internet forums . . . let's say this one, just so we know what we're talking about.

Let's say that person discovered that they were being cyberstalked . . . someone was following them around the Internet for no legitimate purpose . . . only to do harm to that person.

Let's say at the time the person realized he was being cyberstalked he decided to delete some posts, because he did not want them to do harm to a third person. It was too late to use the edit button and the site owner/administrator would not remove the posts, claiming the site now owned them.

Then the third person was harmed because someone saw a post and used it against the third person.

Who does the third person have a claim against?
 
Same answer. Might as well first report to the authorities and see where it goes. After that, it will get expensive and you need to start by obtaining an information subpoena to obtain information from the site owner. And that may not even lead you directly to the identity of the poster.
 
The point I was getting at is if the site claimed ownership of the post(s), so would not delete them when the author of them asked for them to be deleted, why would the site not have some liability if the posts harmed someone.

It seems unusual that someone could claim ownership of something that harms someone else, and not have liability.
 
Of course, the original poster was concerned with unwanted e-mails and not some kind of cyberstalking.

Certainly there are states where cyberstalking and other forms of internet harassment can be a crime. the problem you get when you see it across state lines is that enforcement is difficult or nearly impossible. Most agencies and prosecutors are not going to spend a ton of money to investigate and attempt to prosecute such crimes unless there is a realistic likelihood of injury or death (a credible threat, so to speak).


- Carl
 
Thanks to the Internet, jurisdiction is no longer geographic. The Missouri mom was tried in LA, cuz that's where the server was.

That case opened the door for more.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Seven_New_Cases_of_Cyberbullying_Are_Prosecuted_31959.html

Expense does not seem to be a problem to the several law enforcement agencies ranging from state's AG to county sheriff's who are prosecuting cyber crime, such as through child pornography stings.

Just about every one of these involves alleged perpetrators from outside the law enforcement agency's geographic jurisdiction.

Internet Sting Operations got 211,000 google hits:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=law+enforcement+internet+stings&btnG=Google+Search
 
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It is still about funding, resources, and priorities. My department gets several of these reports each month. We lack the resources to investigate, so we pas them on to the Attorney General's Office and the DOJ. They do not find the incidents to be worth the time to investigate, so they languish.

The vast majority of acts that are technically crimes are NOT going to get investigated much less prosecuted. It is not that they CAN not be prosecuted, it is that the resources go to the most heinous crimes and not just every crime. It would be cost prohibitive to investigate each and every allegation of internet crime received by law enforcement in CA. Simple harassment just ain't gonna cut it.

- Carl
 
CdwJava hit this right on the head perfectly. This isn't a question of whether another person is "wrong" - of course that person is wrong but the investment is unfortunately too great for the "reward." It's like suing someone for $1.50 in small claims court - will you spend $10 to file (and hope to recover later) and invest hours of time in court and then potentially execution? Unfortunate fact of life.
 
CdwJava said:
Most agencies and prosecutors are not going to spend a ton of money to investigate and attempt to prosecute such crimes unless there is a realistic likelihood of injury or death (a credible threat, so to speak).


- Carl
Click to expand...

You are no doubt speaking of your own experience/agency.

Some agencies, however, relish the opportunity of pursuing cyber perps committing cyber crimes. It must be paying off in dollars and sense.

I know of a financially-strapped county that's cutting back as much of their budget as they can, but they have an active, ongoing cyber crime sting. It's probably cost-effective to have a deputy sitting at a computer, pursuing perps anywhere and everywhere.
 
JLB said:
You are no doubt speaking of your own experience/agency.
Click to expand...
Actually, I speak for the great majority of agencies in California and without. Note I wrote "most" and not, "all."

Most agencies have limited resources, and fishing into a deep blue internet sea for threats or harassment that are unlikely to result in injury or theft is going to be at the bottom of the resource priority pool.

Some agencies, however, relish the opportunity of pursuing cyber perps committing cyber crimes. It must be paying off in dollars and sense.
Click to expand...
Some agencies do enjoy it ... some have grants that require them to do so. But, even those agencies have criteria for their investigations. Out here, most these investigations tend to be farmed out to the FBI, the state Attorney General, or to one of a handful of regional task forces. However, even these organizations have a high threshold before they will take the case - the dollar value of a theft must be high (in the tens of thousands) the risk or threat of harm must be substantial, and the local prosecutor must be willing to take on the case.

Resources are limited and criteria can be high. This is not a case that will likely result in a serious investigation as the parties are separated by 2,500 miles and there appears to be no credible threat of harm. But, no one has told the OP NOT to report the matter to the police. In fact, we have recommended that a report be made. However, the caveat was rightfully made that there should be little expectation of follow-up or a detailed investigation given the circumstances. If it happens, wonderful!

I know of a financially-strapped county that's cutting back as much of their budget as they can, but they have an active, ongoing cyber crime sting.
Click to expand...
Enforcement is a political decision. Obviously the head of whatever agency this is has determined that it is politically more advantageous to pursue cyber crime than local, tangible crime. More power to him! In my county, they'd string up the Chief or Sheriff that neglected local problems for internet stings. Indeed, this would be the case in most every city or county I am aware of. But, if one can operate as part of such a cyber task force, or run their own cyber crimes unit, more power to them!

It's probably cost-effective to have a deputy sitting at a computer, pursuing perps anywhere and everywhere.
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Maybe ... maybe not. There are a great number of associated difficulties and expenses with investigating cyber crimes - not the least of which is knowledge and experience. This is a field in which there are very few trained law enforcement investigators, and those that do exist are already part of such teams or do so as a collateral assignment with their other duties.

These are not as simple as just monitoring MySpace. If only they were ...


- Carl
 
mightymoose said:
Why can't you block the email address and be done with it?
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The simplest of answers!

I agree! :D

I am wondering if it is more than just e-mail, though, and if it is also MySpace, instant messaging, etc. Very often people lump all of this together with the term "e-mail" or just "internet."

I have a spam folder for just such junk. :)

- Carl
 
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