Online harassment by a former co-worker-is there legal recourse?

[FAITH Rowley]

Jurisdiction

Other

My husband gained employment in the beginning of 2019 at a local business. About a month after he started, his niece received a message from a woman in Georgia, which is across the country, whom she has never met, with a link to a public forum, and my husbands mugshot, concerned for his safety.
In this forum, a co-worker, who we still do not know who it is, posted my husbands picture, his record, and people were talking about how he should have a bullet in his head, etc. My husband is a registered sex offender for a crime that occurred 20 years ago, and has no further criminal history moving forward and has worked extremely hard to better himself.
The local police were contacted and informed, and they said they would look into it, but here we are, nearly a year later, and nothing has been done and we've heard nothing.
My question is, is this legal to do this? I understand criminal records are public records, however this was used to harass my husband and caused enough concern that someone from GEORGIA contacted his niece. My husband has since left that job, his employer did nothing to rectify it, and neither have the police.
I created my own account on the forum, and managed to get the thread deleted so the harassment couldn't continue, but I have screen shots of the conversations, and as we know, what goes on the internet, stays on the internet.
Do we have any legal recourse? Please advise.

 

[cbg]

What did you expect to have done when you don't even know who the person is and you're fully half the continent away?

 

[FAITH Rowley]

I think you misunderstood, but since you are a moderator, how do I change my user name? Or can you just delete?

 

[hrforme]

how does he know this was a coworker?

Unfortunately records are open and accessable and for some reason he has one. Was he terminated from this job or did he leave on his own? What did he expect the employer to do if it was a public forum not related to the employer and he had no idea which coworker posted it?

 

[cbg]

It's not that I don't understand the situation; it's that I don't understand what you expected the police to do.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

A question worth repeating...

How does he know this was a coworker?

 

[justblue]

My husband gained employment in the beginning of 2019 at a local business. About a month after he started, his niece received a message from a woman in Georgia, which is across the country, whom she has never met, with a link to a public forum, and my husbands mugshot, concerned for his safety.
In this forum, a co-worker, who we still do not know who it is, posted my husbands picture, his record, and people were talking about how he should have a bullet in his head, etc. My husband is a registered sex offender for a crime that occurred 20 years ago, and has no further criminal history moving forward and has worked extremely hard to better himself.
The local police were contacted and informed, and they said they would look into it, but here we are, nearly a year later, and nothing has been done and we've heard nothing.
My question is, is this legal to do this? I understand criminal records are public records, however this was used to harass my husband and caused enough concern that someone from GEORGIA contacted his niece. My husband has since left that job, his employer did nothing to rectify it, and neither have the police.
I created my own account on the forum, and managed to get the thread deleted so the harassment couldn't continue, but I have screen shots of the conversations, and as we know, what goes on the internet, stays on the internet.
Do we have any legal recourse? Please advise.

What State is this in?...
ETA:
never mind, I remember you had ND as your state last night.

 

[zddoodah]

About a month after he started, his niece received a message from a woman in Georgia, which is across the country, whom she has never met, with a link to a public forum, and my husbands mugshot, concerned for his safety.
In this forum, a co-worker, who we still do not know who it is, posted my husbands picture, his record, and people were talking about how he should have a bullet in his head, etc. My husband is a registered sex offender. . . .

I'm not entirely sure I'm following this.

A month after your husband started a new job (apparently in a state "across the country" from Georgia), his niece received some sort of message (an email?) from a woman who was unknown to her. Despite not knowing this person, your niece clicked a link, and took her to some online forum in which some folks were discussing your husband's status as a registered sex offender. That's about it, right? And, presumably, the forum was not singularly devoted to your husband but also discussed other RSOs and/or other subjects. Correct?

The local police were contacted and informed, and they said they would look into it, but here we are, nearly a year later, and nothing has been done and we've heard nothing.

I suspect that "we'll look into it" was their way of blowing you off, although why they wouldn't simply tell you that this isn't illegal or in any way a matter for the police isn't apparent.

My question is, is this legal to do this?

Nothing you described is not legal.

I understand criminal records are public records, however this was used to harass my husband

No it wasn't. It was done on a public, online forum, and your husband wouldn't apparently have known about it but for an email sent not to him but to his niece, and that email was apparently a one-time thing that hasn't repeated itself for a year. That's about as far from "harassment" as you can get.

his employer did nothing to rectify it, and neither have the police.

Unless the forum was a company forum maintained by his former employer, his employer had no ability whatsoever to "rectify" anything. Nor did the police.

Do we have any legal recourse?

No. Aside from the fact that nothing you described was illegal, you solved the issue yourself, and your husband suffered no damage as a result.

I'm truly at a loss to understand what you thought might have been illegal. I strongly suspect that there are dozens/hundreds/thousands of online forums where folks discuss RSOs and talk about what awful people they are believed to be. That's obviously one of the many consequences that one gets to deal with when one chooses to commit a sex crime. That your husband has not been a recidivist and has lived an honorable life since then is great, but it's neither here nor there. And the incident you described was a one time thing. Move on.

 

[army judge]

Do we have any legal recourse?

Yes, both of you have legal recourse.

All of us have legal recourse.

You have the ability to divorce that convicted sexual predator.

The convicted sexual predator has the ability to divorce you.

You also have the ability to just walk away from the convicted sexual predator anytime you wish, and go anywhere you wish.

You don't need to ask anyone's permission, either.

As far as the anonymous email that revealed the TRUTH about the convicted sexual predator, you have the ability to IGNORE it, because it wasn't sent to you or the convicted sexual predator.

Please advise.

You impress me as an intelligent person.

When did you discover the man you married was a convicted sexual predator, before or after you married him?

Why would you marry a convicted sexual predator?

Once you learned the person was a convicted sexual predator, why would you remain married to the convicted sexual predator?

Again, you impress me as an intelligent person, so why would you even say hello to a convicted sexual predator, let alone marry one?