Anti-TriMet blogger Lane Jensen today was given a suspended sentence for telephonic harassment, and was ordered to have no contact with agency spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt for three years.
Jensen pleaded no contest Jan. 17 to one count of telephonic harassment for repeatedly texting questions to Altstadt's personal cell phone Oct. 15.
His plea deal means prosecutors dropped 30 other counts of telephonic harassment—one for each text he sent to the spokeswoman. Each charge carried a maximum sentence of six months and a $2,500 fine.
Jensen ran a blog called Portland Transit Lane, where he criticized and mocked TriMet officials. He was arrested by transit police Oct. 17 after he used an automated text program to send Alstadt 31 messages, one every 30 minutes.
"So what is it going to take to get safety on the buses?” the texts asked. “How many more lives will it take? 1? 10? 100? 1,000? A driver being killed while in the seat?”
Altstadt testified during this morning's sentencing hearing, saying Jensen's 31 text messages made her fear for her safety.
She said she contacted transit police after Jensen ignored her warning to stop texting her.
"He chose to laugh about it and say the agency was scared of him," Altstadt said. "I on my own decided to confront him. There was no conspiracy here, just me trying to protect myself."
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors painted Jensen as a stalker who orchestrated an Internet bullying campaign through his blog.
"I know there has been a lot of talk online and in WW about Mr. Jensen being a journalist," said deputy district attorney John Copic. "What Mr. Jensen was trying to do was just be a cyberbully and hide under the First Amendment."
Jensen's attorney Christopher Marin described him as a dogged journalist and advocate for bus riders, who was asking questions in the public interest.
"The phone in question is paid for by taxpayer dollars," Marin said. "I feel that three years [without contact] is unprecedented."
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Angel Lopez told Jensen if he followed the terms of the no-contact order for 18 months, Lopez would consider lifting the ban then.
Lopez appeared scornful of Jensen throughout the hearing, comparing him to a blogger who had run an extortion site where he accused people of having sexually-transmitted diseases.
"Mr. Jensen, you seem to enjoy being bathed in public attention," Lopez said. "You have my attention. What do you want to say?"
Jensen chose not to make a statement during the hearing. Afterward, he told WW he does not plan to blog about TriMet again. (He shut down his website, Portland Transit Lane, in December.)
"I'm comfortable with what's happened," Jensen said. "This chapter of my life is closed, and I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things."
Altstadt declined comment to WW. TriMet director of communications Mary Fetsch says the agency also declines comment.
19 comments:
This is the comment I left at WW
---------------------------
""Altstadt testified during this morning's sentencing hearing, saying Jensen's 31 text messages made her fear for her safety. ""
~~~> BS her never made one threat against her, trumped up BULLSHIT
"""His plea deal means prosecutors dropped 30 other counts of telephonic
harassment—one for each text he sent to the spokeswoman. Each charge
carried a maximum sentence of six months and a $2,500 fine.""
~~~>Prosecutorial abuse if there ever was. If you don't take the
'deal' you could spend 15 years in prison. And they call it the
"justice" system. What a joke1
""""He chose to laugh about it and say the agency was scared of him,"
Altstadt said. "I on my own decided to confront him. There was no
conspiracy here, just me trying to protect myself.""
~~~> I don't believe for a second that she decided on her own to
confront him, no way. I also don't recall he 'laughing' about it
although I do recall him saying the agency was 'scared of him' I always
reminded him that Trimet was never scared of any of the bloggers, we are
a minor irritation at most.
""" During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors painted Jensen as a stalker
who orchestrated an Internet bullying campaign through his blog.""
~~~>WRONG! All he wanted was answers to his questions. Deliberate distortion.
""Lopez appeared scornful of Jensen throughout the hearing, comparing him
to a blogger who had run an extortion site where he accused people of
having sexually-transmitted diseases."""
~~~Jesus Christ, this judge is off the wall. That is absurd, what a ludicrous comment to make.
"""Mr. Jensen, you seem to enjoy being bathed in public attention," Lopez said. "You have my attention. What do you want to say?""
~~~Yes Lane enjoyed that, so what?
I'm going to request the audio of this hearing and post it too my blog, I wanna hear for myself how all this was represented.
Thanks Aaron Mesh for doing such a great job covering this story and the implications it may have had.
This guy was just asking real questions!! But it's all hush-hush now! No one ever wants to answer real questions! They just want us to fall in line and do as we are told. I say screw that! This guy is awesome!
Wow. Lane Jensen Martyr Train continues.
This guy was constantly being threatening and harrassing to anyone who didn't agree with him. He would regularly have tantrums on twitter every time someone dared disagree with him. On and on he always went about how he was the smartest person in the scene, and yet he doesn't get that maybe intimidating someone throughout text messages, sending out people's personal information, home addresses, and personal details and encouraging others to harass them as well might not work out in his favor?
I've been in his company before and he's a big, intimidating guy even physically, and you can tell it doesn't take much to set him off. I never felt comfortable around him, especially when we would get into even the simplest argument and you could tell from his body language that he could strike. I think TriMet is a group of the most corrupt motherfuckers out there, but Lane regularly crosses as many lines as he feels like just because he thinks he's the noble warrior of justice.
These are things the entire blogosphere used to say would get him in major trouble. And then it does, and people suddenly run to turn him into a hero? Bullshit! Lane was an egotistical asshole who had a small group of people always enabling him to do whatever he wanted and that he was a god. And now this is where he ended up.
It's exactly where I knew he would. It's exactly what he deserves. And I guarantee you if any member of TriMet did to you what Lane did to them you'd feel the same.
"". And I guarantee you if any member of TriMet did to you what Lane did to them you'd feel the same. ""
~~~>Actually no, I just would have blocked his number
No, Al, what you would have done was you'd have posted about it everywhere you could and made sure everyone knew it. As anyone should do. When someone's being a dick and thinks they should get away with it and they represent something that is important to all of us, then we need to not encourage them, but put a stop to it. Around the first wave of Lane Jensen bullying people and calling for TriMet to stop censoring him whilst censoring any blog post that didn't agree with his agenda, we should have cut him out and kept him out. But no, he's our hero. And this is why no one takes our side seriously.
""" But no, he's our hero. And this is why no one takes our side seriously."""
(obviously Cameron)
~~~>I don't think that 'our side' was damaged at all by Lane. Sure Lane made a fool of himself more than once! But what I liked most about Lane was that he disrupted their process, its a form of civil disobedience.
I know you disapproved of his methods and I regret that it cost 'us' your support because we needed you out here.
But what I really object to is the use of the police state to silence him. A simple restraining order would have done the trick. Trimet got away with murder here.
Al,
You were one of his biggest supporters thru this whole debacle. He began by aiming his attacks at just about anyone he could get his hands on, then later after "realizing" his mistake and burning bridges/any support he might have had, he wanted support from.those same people who he had just burned.u
You would tell everyone that you had no control over what he said or did. That might be true to a small degree but you can't deny the influence and support you have given him and the persuation you have had on him.
He ran rampant, broke the rules and now wants sympathy from the same people he burned. Uh, no. Ain't happening. He got what he deserved.
You were one of his biggest supporters thru this whole debacle.(correct) He began by aiming his attacks at just about anyone he could get his hands on, then later after "realizing" his mistake and burning bridges/any support he might have had, he wanted support from.those same people who he had just burned.(when you're right you're right) u
You would tell everyone that you had no control over what he said or did. That might be true to a small degree but you can't deny the influence and support you have given him and the persuation you have had on him.(correct, I know the whole debacle would never have happened with out my support, BUT GAWD I LOVED HIS SHOW SOOO MUCH)
He ran rampant, broke the rules and now wants sympathy from the same people he burned. Uh, no. Ain't happening.(It aint happening from you but you have no idea of the kind of support he garnered after this incident) He got what he deserved. (no, he never deserved jail, sorry totally diagree)
Oh BTW, now that he is gone for good can we at least get you back?
OK, I'll bite on the last remark I made. He DID deserve some degree of legal repercussion, maybe as you said before something like a restraining order, and that could have/should have been it. Didn't he fail to abide by their first requirement too and was rearrested?
Once woulda been two too many for me.
Oh, and who says you ever really lost me Al. I've just gotten pickier on the subjects I'll comment on and appreciated you bringing back the "anonymous" category. Some of us still have to deal with the tyranny...if more of your posts weren't 20 minute video rants (hey man, your blog-your choice, just don't always have time to listen to the whole thing) I'd probably put my two cents in more.
We agree more than we disagree. Fundamentally anyway. Best.
He DID deserve some degree of legal repercussion, maybe as you said before something like a restraining order, and that could have/should have been it.(exactly this whole thing should have been handled in civil court not criminal court) Didn't he fail to abide by their first requirement too and was rearrested?(the truth is he abided by what he thought were the terms of his release agreement, unfortunately he was wrong)
Oh, and who says you ever really lost me Al.(cool i know Lane caused a riff between me and you and I was always sorry about that) appreciated you bringing back the "anonymous" category.(ya i know the anonymous is necessity especially with Trimet employees who need to keep their names out of stuff like this) if more of your posts weren't 20 minute video rants( I dont do that many of those anymore and they only reason I do those is because I hate writing extra long blog posts, much easier to talk into the camera)
We agree more than we disagree. Fundamentally anyway.(absolutely)
Those last two replies were not me
Those last two replies were not me
~~~>You're kidding, somebody is impersonating you? WOW, the beauty of the anonymous comment, why would anyone bother?
I think it's a totally different guy who is confused by what you're saying but just happens to be Anon.
Hmmm?
Thanks for telling us that, I sorta liked that guy, that's a disappointment that its not you
Posts 3 and 5 were me. The rest were not.
Any guesses on who that might be Cam?
Well Al, you could take a guess...or I could just tell you.
See, your "Oh, by the way now that he's gone for good can we at least get you back?" statement could very well apply to Cameron as well as to me. I wasn't trying to impersonate him or anyone else, and all of my comments we exchanged still stand.
My ID is just giving me crap and doesn't seem to want to work right now...so until I can get it fixed, its "anonymous"..
Cwherewetku
Oh, 7 & 10 are mine.
C
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