G20 Tweets Result in Arrests

Two men who were sending out Twitter messages detailing police movements during the G20 Pittsburgh Summit are now awaiting a hearing after being charged with three separate criminal counts. Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger were arrested Thursday, September 24th at a hotel in Kennedy Township after listening to police and EMS radio traffic and then posting information about where police were setting up roadblocks. They are charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of communications equipment, and possessing instruments of a crime. Elliot Madison’s lawyer, Martin Stolar, says the actions of his client were protected by the first amendment. He says Madison’s tweets were actually getting out the message police wanted people to know, “don’t go down this street or you will get arrested.” Martin says this is a case that anyone who uses twitter or any other social networking site should watch closely. He says, “This could set a very dangerous precedent.” Stolar says this might be a very different case if the men were sending updates to bank robbers telling them that police where on the way. He says this is the exact opposite, this is telling people not engaged in a crime where police have asked them not to go. A week after the arrest in Pennsylvania, a search warrant was issued for the New York home Madison shares with several other people including his wife Elena. Stolar says police spent all day combing through the house. They reportedly removed items such as computers, gas masks and corked glassware. However they also took items that had nothing to do with the G20 or twitter. Among the items seized were records of Madison’s social work clients and posters. Stolar has filed suit in New York on behalf of the Madisons for the return of those materials. The lawyers for the defendants have asked for an October 20th hearing in Allegheny County court and a hearing in federal court in New York.