Re: [TSCM-L] Spencer: Nasty rumors can drive a person buggy

[I suspect that the Judge got hoaxed. -jma]


http://www.delcotimes.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=16627156&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=8

Spencer: Nasty rumors can drive a person buggy

Gil Spencer, Times Columnist
05/12/2006

I just spent something under $2,000 (and above $1.67) to have my home
phones swept for electronic listening devices. Some very sensitive
information has leaked out concerning my personal life and the
personal lives of other members of this household.

I don't want to go too deeply into the sort of information that has
been compromised, but I fear some of it has to do with the H. Beatty
Chadwick case.

I wouldn't have thought so but for reading that Delaware County
President Judge Ken Clouse recently ordered his own sweep for bugs on
courthouse phones.

If someone out there has the nerve to tap phones at the courthouse,
certainly they would have the guts to tap mine.

I've been writing about Beatty for years, and though I don't want to
sound paranoid, it makes you wonder, believe me.

Judge Clouse has been a little vague about whether the sweeps he had
conducted by two ex-FBI guys turned up any evidence of actual
bugging. But he did say that certain "suspicious areas" have been
"remedied." Whatever that means.

There seems to be some skepticism floating around about Clouse's
motives in ordering the sweeps. Some gossips are quietly suggesting
that his concern is more about stuff that has been written about him
and his personal life on a local Internet Web site than about the
integrity of the judicial process. A certain anonymous Internet
blogger who calls himself Peter Porcupine has been writing about the
judge and other politicos for months and the gossips are saying this
is Clouse's attempt to ferret him out.

I doubt it.

I called Judge Clouse's attorney Art Donato. He is my attorney, too.
And he tells me that the president judge has real, honest-to-God
concerns about security lapses at the courthouse. He also told me
that having phones swept for electronic bugging devices is a routine
event for many people, including most CEOs of big companies.

(I called one CEO and asked him how often he has his phones swept.
"Never," he said. I got to thinking about some of the conversations
I've had with him in the last five years and advised him he should
start doing so immediately.)

But enough about those people.

I have become aware in the last week that there are two ugly rumors
now in general circulation concerning my own family. One involves my
marital status.

Now, it is true that I recently got re-re-married.

However, I don't think that's anybody's business but my own. I don't
even like my bride knowing about it! But, at least I know how she
found out. She was, after all, there -- and so were two other people,
who shall remain nameless. But I know they didn't tell anyone because
they're both lawyers and they are sworn to silence by the
attorney/client/wedding planner privilege.

That so many other people found out about it so quickly led me to
believe my phones might be tapped. Then, the other day, I called home
and heard our new answering machine message that informs people in a
very charming female voice: "You have reached the Spencers ..

Mystery solved.

The other rumor, however, was even worse.

It involved a family member who was rumored to have been involved in
a startling and brutal killing.

I don't wish to give any credence to this mean-spirited and awful
gossip, but I will say this: Kai Kai Spencer is a not a bad dog. She
may have done bad things (like gone pee-pee on her master's bed a
dozen or so times), but she is not a bad dog. She's a good dog.

Therefore, there is no truth to the story that she lured a muskrat
into our yard and gleefully murdered it before depositing it on our
living room sofa as a wedding present.

None. Zero.

It wasn't a muskrat. It was a groundhog. And it was trespassing.

Furthermore, no one in this house screamed, "THE SOFA! THE SOFA!
THERE'S A BIG, DEAD ANIMAL ON THE SOFA. I'M GOING TO LAURA'S!"

And no one in this house then got a bunch of paper towels, wrapped up
the 20-pound varmint, carried it outside and threw it over the fence,
down onto the railroad tracks.

That would be an improper disposal of a body. Or littering. Or something.

Also there is no truth to the speculation that before its untimely
death, the critter used the pseudonym Gary Groundhog or that he had
his own blog spot at www.gophertompaine.com.

All that said I've got some good news: My phones weren't tapped. And
I've just heard from my attorney that Judge Clouse has agreed to talk
to me about the security breach at the courthouse. I am scheduled to
meet with him this morning. I'll report what he has to say Sunday.

Gil Spencer's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him
at gspe..._at_delcotimes.com.






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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:20 CST