The eight-member jury in Philadelphia awarded $1,000 to each
of the roughly 67,000 members in the class — the approximate number of people
who had been booked into the county jail from 1938 to 2013 — meaning that Bucks
County could have to pay out about $67 million.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone already had ruled in
March 2016 that Bucks County violated the state’s Criminal History Record
Information Act by making protected criminal-history information publicly
available on its online Inmate Lookup Tool.
At issue before the jury this month was whether the county
had “willfully” violated the state’s criminal-records act by making such
information available online, and if so, how much to award each class member.
The act mandates an amount from $1,000 to $10,000.
Beetlestone on Tuesday told jurors that a willful violation
meant that county officials acted with a “reckless disregard or indifference.”
She said it did not mean that officials intended to violate the act.
The claim stemmed from a 2013 lawsuit brought against the
county by Daryoush Taha, of Sicklerville, N.J. Taha had been arrested by
Bensalem Police in September 1998 and charged with harassment, disorderly
conduct, and resisting arrest. He was locked up in the Bucks County
Correctional Facility and released the next day.
After Taha completed a one-year probationary program for
nonviolent first-time offenders, a Bucks County judge ordered that his arrest
record be expunged.
But in 2011, Taha discovered that his incarceration
information, including his photograph, personal details, and charges, was
available on the online Inmate Lookup Tool. As a result, Taha suffered
emotional distress and the invasion of his privacy, he alleged in his lawsuit.
After the suit was filed, the county removed all inmate mugshots and most
arrest information from the online tool.
Beetlestone agreed to give the lawsuit class-action status.
Theodore Schaer, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, told jurors
in his closing argument Tuesday that “this is an important case” about privacy
that affects everyone in Pennsylvania.
“Residents have the right to expect local governments to
follow the law,” he said, adding: “Your decision today is far-reaching and
important and maybe even precedential.”
Taha had testified during the one-week trial, but was not in
court Tuesday. Schaer, who represented the plaintiffs with lawyers Jonathan
Shub and Alan Denenberg, said after the verdict that the jury was sending all
municipalities in the state a clear message that “privacy and data security
have to be taken seriously.”
Frank Chernak, a lawyer for Bucks County, said in his
closing that Bucks officials did not realize that the Inmate Lookup Tool
violated the act. “From our knowledge, nobody reported it as a problem,” he
said.
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