Man jailed over negative Yelp and online reviews wants to use free speech defense at his Dallas ...

[TexasTowelie]

Man jailed over negative Yelp and online reviews wants to use free speech defense at his Dallas trial

Nobody who's in business likes bad online reviews. But one Dallas company got a North Texas man thrown in jail for saying negative things about it on a blog.

And a jury will decide if it's a matter of free speech or a crime.

William Laurence Stanley was charged on Dec. 6 in federal court in Dallas with a crime for his blog posts about Generational Equity, a Dallas merger and acquisitions company he once did work for. That's because Stanley was convicted last year of extorting the company. Stanley had threatened to ruin the firm's reputation by flooding the internet with false and negative information unless it paid him about $29,500.

He's now charged with retaliation.

Stanley, who owned a "search engine optimization," or SEO business, said he was released from federal custody on Nov. 4. He said he wrote the controversial posts about Generational Equity prior to that, from a halfway house. He was arrested Nov. 30 and charged with the new offense after Generational Equity complained to the FBI about the online reviews.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2016/12/30/man-jailed-negative-yelp-online-reviews-wants-use-free-speech-defense-dallas-trial

[radical noodle]

1. Sounds like blackmail to me

Pay me or I'll ruin your business?

[Warpy]

2. Looks like extortion

You can say what you want on Yelp or the BBB or some blog. Demand money to stop, it becomes a crime.

[Jake Stern]

3. An extortionist who decided to get revenge on the company who busted him

Let him cool his heels for a few years.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Bad headline As others have said-- he wasn't jailed for bad reviews, but for extortion

[unblock]

5. The headline is fine -- it's *not* about extortion

Yes, he committed extortion but he pled guilty and did time for that. That's background. The story is about him badmouthing the company afterwards.

The question is, is that retaliation for the company reporting a crime or is it free speech.