Defense Against Anonymous Blogger Backfires

Highlighting blogs as a potential trove of information for criminal defense lawyers, attorneys for a Connecticut school official tried to use MySpace to challenge the "Jane Doe" status of a former student who is suing for failure to protect her from the sexual advances of a coach. Anthony B. Corleto argued that the plaintiff waived anonymity by voluntarily publicizing her name, image and the "circumstances of her case" on a Web site. The attempt backfired, and a judge socked Corleto with a $1,000 sanction.