Looking In: Stealing private correspondence is wrong, on both sides of aisle

Dennis Kintigh

There has been much attention paid to the saga of the indiscreet emails sent by Pat Rogers to various individuals in the Martinez administration. But scant notice has been paid to the question of how these emails were obtained or the appropriateness of the conduct by Progress Now New Mexico. First off, the emails were offensive. No reasonable person could argue otherwise. Furthermore, Rogers and I, although acquaintances and members of the New Mexico Republican Party, are not political confidantes. It is my perception that Rogers was an ardent supporter of my opponent in the 2008 Republican primary. But this is not a personal issue. This is an issue of law, ethics and morality. During my career as an FBI agent, I was involved in countless wire-tap investigations. My roles ranged from monitoring agent all the way up to case agent/affidavit author. The federal legal system treats the privacy of personal communications with the utmost sincerity. In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to set out explicit guidelines to law enforcement on what form of court order must be used to obtain emails and other electronic communications. It also sets out criminal penalties for, and civil suits against, those who illicitly obtain the emails of others...

Dennis Kintigh is the state representative of District 57, which includes Chaves, Lincoln and Otero counties. He lives in Roswell.

Read more...

Looking In: Stealing private correspondence is wrong, on both sides of aisle