Ohio Judge Sues Plain Dealer Over Privacy Breach

In a developing story in Cleveland this week, Cuyahoga County Court Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold has sued the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper and others for unmasking her or her daughter (the facts are not 100% clear on this point) as the anonymous poster of comments on a news website about cases over which she has presided.  She alleges breaches of contract with respect to the privacy policy posted on the cleveland.com website (associated with the Plain Dealer).  She also alleges a variety of other claims including fraud, defamation and false light publicity.  This is an interesting case because the news organization is effectively being sued for breaching its own privacy policy - as opposed to the situation where a third party has sought the information for the purposes of legal or other proceedings.  The full story is here.  A link to the Judge's complaint is here.