Ex-wife of sick neo-nazi leader arrested for posting photos of undercover police officers

[ck4829]

A Bedford County woman started a blog about an undercover police force and is now behind bars.

Elisha Strom, 34, of Thaxton, is charged with one count of harassment of a police officer.

She’s currently in the Albermarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

A search warrant on file in Bedford County circuit court claims on July 3rd, Strom posted the home address of a Charlottesville police sergeant.

It also shows she posted a picture of the officer getting into his unmarked patrol car in front of his home.

The officer works for the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force, or JADE.

A check of Strom’s blog reveals she has posted head shots of many, if not all, of the task force members.

There is also detailed accounts of the task force’s comings and goings.

Strom also posted pictures of several vehicles that could belong to JADE officers.

Other pictures include a state police investigator pumping gas and riding a motorcycle.

Police say, since most JADE officers do undercover work, posting their names, pictures, and possibly home addresses could put the officers in danger.

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/crime/article/bedford_co._woman_blogs_about_police_then_gets_arrested/43318/

Her ex-husband, Kevin Alfred Strom, was the leader of the neo-nazi organization known as National Vanguard. He recently did some time for having child pornography on his computer.

All around a very dangerous group of people.

[arcadian]

1. Absolutely not illegal.

I hope she sues the fuck out them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. She posted the law she supposedly violated on her blog

§ 18.2-186.4. Use of a person’s identity with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass; penalty.
It shall be unlawful for any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass another person, to publish the person’s name or photograph along with identifying information as defined in clauses (iii) through (ix), or clause (xii) of subsection C of § 18.2-186.3, including identification of the person’s primary residence address. Any person who violates this section is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Any person who violates this section knowing or having reason to know that person is a law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 9.1-101, is guilty of a Class 6 felony. The sentence shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of six months.

[arcadian]

17. Hopefully she'll contact the ACLU

Sounds like a free speech issue to me. Nevermind the Virginia ACLU is a bunch of cowards.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. I'm going to remain neutral

I understand your point but it also looks like she did violate this law. But yes, that law sucks.

[arcadian]

22. There is a case that she's a citizen journalist.

I see nothing in her blog that was to incite any sort of action against the police.

[cynatnite]

2. Not to mention the danger to their families, too. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

3. Appears that photos taken in public.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. These "Drug Enforcement Task Forces" Are Bullshit

They are formed SOLELY to allow the confiscation of assets of anyone caught with drugs. Secondarily, these groups allow any backwater sherrif to obtain "big toys" like tanks, automatic weapons and cool ninja outfits.

[Aragorn]

5. you are so right

but "staying undercover" is a good excuse to NOT hold them accountable. This is a shakedown force inmost cases, on taxpayer expense - even though it turns a profit. Now it's a vendetta against someone who did NOTHING illegal based on this report.

I though it must be in Texas at first.

[cynatnite]

6. Maybe so...

but, I just can't agree that this is the proper thing to do in response. These cops have families and some photos were taken at their homes.

[arcadian]

9. If the photos were taken from a public location it's absolutely not illegal.

Even if they weren't, the most she could get would be trespassing. Photography is not illegal. I'm familiar with these Charlottesville cops. I actually stumbled upon one of their operations. I was at a friends condo in C'ville, we were standing outside when I noticed an inordinate amount of police officers coming and going from the condo above her's. I asked her "what was up?", I thought maybe a big bust had gone down. She told me "No, the police have a satellite unit HQed in the complex." I thought this was really strange.

It was a very nice condo complex too, it's where Henry Hager now husband to Jenna Bush lived when he was going to UVA before he got married to the mob. Anyway, several of the people going into the condo were plains clothes cops, How do I know? Because I saw a couple who were dressed like "construction workers" wearing a badge on their belt, one of them even noticed that I noticed and tried nonchalantly to cover his badge up. Same undercover cops got into unmarked work vans.

If these people can't keep their undercover ops a secret then they deserve to be exposed. If the U.S. citizenry doesn't have a reasonable right to privacy then neither do the police. Fuck them.

[cynatnite]

10. Let me ask you this question...

Would you want someone who didn't like you to post pictures of you and your home and then posting them where others could see? Michele Malkin has posted phone numbers and addresses of people at her site. DU pretty much took her to the woodshed because she put those people's lives in danger by what she did.

I know a lot of folks here don't like police officers, but in no way does it justify this kind of thing. There are enough assholes in the country who would kill cops without a second thought and she's taking pictures of their homes where they live with their families.

No matter what anyone's issues with police officers are, this is completely unnacceptable. It also reminds me of O'Lielly tactics.

[arcadian]

11. Doesn't matter if you think it's unacceptable, it's completely legal.

[cynatnite]

13. Legal doesn't make it right and you know it. n/t

[arcadian]

16. So you are going to presume to tell me what I know and don't know?

Per haps if the police weren't so immoral the citizenry wouldn't feel the need to surveil their actions. I have no problem with what she did.

[cynatnite]

19. They are NOT all immoral...

There are some bad cops. I grant you that, but not all are. There are some very good cops. I have cops in my family and I've dealt with a lot of them professionally when I was an EMT and an ER tech.

You have counted yourself as one who doesn't like cops and there are others like you who feel the same way. There are a few who share the same belief, but would take it a step further. It's no different when Michelle Malkin published private numbers and other information on her site in order for her followers to go after these people. What makes you think those kind of people wouldn't take it a step further?

I'm one of these people who think that privacy is a human right. We have the right to not have our addresses, phone numbers and other personal information published for the world to see if we don't want it. No one has the right to take that away. Malkin, this woman, and others of her ilk have no regard for privacy and for people's lives. They don't even have any regard for the lives of the families of these people they don't like.

It will NEVER make it right and you know it.

[arcadian]

21. I agree on a personal level.

At a state level, there is very little that should be private. Which is where I view this issue with this woman and the cops. I do think privacy is important, but you'll never have it. Why aren't you all up in arms about the telephone companies that give your number to telemarketers? The county officials who give out your name and personal info to anybody who can run a check on property tax records. Or the myriad other instances of corporations invading your privacy? It most certainly is not a human right. Also, why are you relying on the state to safeguard your privacy? Ultimately it is your responsibility to safeguard your own privacy.

[cynatnite]

23. How can a cop protect his privacy and his family when he is being stalked?

Keep justifying this kind of behavior to your heart's content. It's obvious okay since you hold cops in such low regard.

[arcadian]

24. Your post makes absolutely no sense.

Every time a cop testifies in a criminal case he's putting it out there. How many criminals behind bars do think would love to get there hands on the cop who arrested them? NEWSFLASH: it ain't that hard to gather information on people.

I mean look at this woman, I have no idea what her background is, but she's just one pissed off woman. It's shocking becuase her report is so voluminous. And she is making her findings public which obviously has put her freedom in jeopardy.

Stalkers don't stalk then post their findings with their own personal info on their blogs.

The cops don't get to just pick and choose what Constitutional rights they want to abide by when conducting investigations, this woman has 1st Amendment rights. If the cops can't do their job while they honor her rights then they aren't really cops. Sounds like you would be in favor of some sort of STASI organization conducting law enforcement. That's where we are headed with stories like this.

[cynatnite]

25. Being pissed off doesn't justify stalking these cops. n/t

[arcadian]

27. You really don't have anything to counter what I'm saying do you?

So you keep repeating yourself.

[TexasObserver]

7. Police State is here.

[Dashfield]

8. Elisha Strom's blog is amazing

Elisha Strom's blog is really quite interesting.

The whole site with every article can be seen as one big page if you go here.

Leaving aside the legal issues, it's a testament to a totally obsessed woman. Celebrity stalkers and John Hinckley's "thing" for Jodie Foster are nothing compared with Elisha Strom's obsession with Charlottesville Police detective Brian O'Donnell and the JADE Task Force. Apparently Elisha once had a close relationship with O'Donnell that went bad: See her post

http://www.iheartejade.blogspot.com/2008/12/ghost-from-christmas-past.html

That relationship, whatever it was, started when Elisha Strom was a star witness in the politically-tinged trial of her husband, in which Brian N. O'Donnell was the lead FBI - Joint Terrorism Task Force agent:

http://www.kevinalfredstrom.com/2009/01/kevin-alfred-strom-address-to-the-court/

It’s not clear how the relationship went bad, but Elisha says O'Donnell’s actions inspired her anti-JADE blogging and stalking, as she makes clear on her very first post at

http://iheartejade.blogspot.com/2008/10/coming-soon_25.html

She also had what appears to be a sexual relationship with another unnamed officer linked to the JADE Task Force (who she nicknamed "Boomslang"), and was using him to get confidential information about other officers and about JADE operations. See her post

http://www.iheartejade.blogspot.com/2009/04/put-camo-green-up-somewhere-anywhere_30.html

She also says O'Donnell (who she nicknames "Longhead" or "LH") bullied her: See

http://www.iheartejade.blogspot.com/2008/11/longer-version-with-oodles-of_13.html

Right at the end of the above post, she implies that she'll retaliate somehow if the FBI (probably meaning O'Donnell, who works with the FBI as well as the JADE and JTTF task forces) comes down on her.

It's not clear what she means by retaliation, but revelations of inside information on agents - possibly including marital infidelity and law violations - seem the most likely: In other posts, she claims to have discovered a married agent's mistress/girlfriend. She asserts she had close relationships herself with the possibly-married O'Donnell and "Boomslang." Maybe it's a kind of blackmail - "Leave me alone or I'll tell all I know." Were there other demands, possibly for money or other favors, we don't know about?

It's cosmically bizarre the lengths to which this woman went to stalk her prey: following agents into stores and gyms, finding out their pants sizes, tailing them within inches of their bumpers for miles into the country, going to the property rolls and then letting everyone know where their families live, where they do target shooting, what kind of cars they drive (even down to updates when something is added to or repaired on the vehicle), lying in wait for them at home, at work, at stakeouts, at court. When did she have time to work - or to raise the 12-year-old daughter she claims to have? Just the writing alone must have taken many many hours, to say nothing of the stalking.

[Poll_Blind]

12. Not illegal. I don't care if she's Satan, she still didn't break any laws.

Take all the unimportant stuff away and you have "Is it OK to take pictures of law enforcement on/from public property in a way which, if it was not a police officer, would not get you in trouble?"

The answer should be YES.

There is no level of secrecy which should be enforced about our law enforcement. Didn't most of us live through the 80's where we ripped on what a shitty country Russia was because of their secret police?

I was at a demonstration some time ago and the police had gotten on the rooftops of one of the nearby buildings and where taking pictures of those attending. The speaker encouraged us to wave at the police officers and begin taking our own set of pictures of them. This actually freaked out the police who all skedaddled off the roof except one videographer.

BTW, it wasn't some crazy demonstration either, I think it was just about the War in Iraq. It was attended mostly by middle-aged or older people and the speakers involved were all well-known members of my community, from religious to political.

PB

[RPG Codex]

14. Connect the dots....

Whats's it with neo-nazi's and child pornography?

[ieoeja]

20. So the cops are allowed to work undercover as domestic spies.

But it is illegal for us to spy on them?

Not too thrilled having a neo-nazi poster boy for our side on this issue, but this is about as fascist as I have ever seen the gov't in the United States get.

[LeftishBrit]

26. Any relation to Strom Thurmond?

Only other person I've ever heard of called Strom.