LAWSUIT, new filings in Steinbach v. Forest Park [FP]

Forest Park Commissioner Terry Steinbach, a candidate for mayor, has filed a lawsuit against the Village of Forest Park and Forest Park employees for accessing her commissioner email account and sending emails to Mayor Anthony Calderone, a political rival.

Steinbach noticed that emails in her "sent folder" were forwarded to Calderone. She didn't do it. She assumed that Forest Park employees were the ones with motive and opportunity.

After naming three John Does as defendants Steinbach has named one of these people, Craig Lundt, the village employee who supervises information technology. See Forest Park Review (Josh Adams).

Lundt says he didn't do it. I've heard rumors that the village is pretty casual about protecting passwords, including Lundt's password. If someone had access to Lundt's account--say an employee who is a political partisan--it's possible this individual could have use Lundt's administrator account to access Steinbach's emails.

The village is claiming that the privacy policy protects the village from lawsuits.

The village's policy on municipally-maintained e-mail accounts clearly outlines that there is no expectation of privacy. However, the village clerk confirmed in November 2006 that there is no record of Steinbach receiving a copy of this policy....

"Forest Park denies that any e-mail communication sent to, from, or within the Forest Park e-mail system is private," defense attorney Matthew Iverson said in court documents.

This argument strikes me as bullshit. If one accepts this position the political majority (Calderone, Gillian and Hosty) would have complete access to the communications of the minority. And something tells me that the minority (Doolin and Steinbach) or citizens will not have equivalent access to emails of the majority.

But we'll see what the courts rule. Or maybe the case will get dropped after the election.