FC: LA cops used police computer systems to look up celebrities

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Here's a no-registration-required URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/04/08/state2143EDT0171.DTL

-Declan

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-celebs8apr08,1,1932749.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia

Officer's Star Searches Raise Liability Worries
City studies possible legal fallout from use of police computer to get
data on celebrities.

April 8, 2003
By Wendy Thermos, Times Staff Writer

For six years, Officer Kelly Chrisman used Los Angeles Police
Department computers to look up confidential law enforcement records
on celebrities and other high-profile people, including Sharon Stone,
Courteney Cox Arquette, Sean Penn and Halle Berry.

Chrisman says he was just carrying out orders from superiors, but a
lawsuit recently settled by the city for nearly $400,000 alleged that
the officer had accessed the records to sell the information to
tabloids.

Now Los Angeles officials are assessing the city's potential
liability.

According to internal LAPD documents, between 1994 and 2000 Chrisman
tapped computer files on scores of celebrities, including Meg Ryan,
Kobe Bryant, O.J. Simpson, Larry King, Drew Barrymore, Dionne Warwick,
Farrah Fawcett, Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson and Berry Gordy.

<snip>






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