Heki vs. Bachmann: the real reason Michele Bachmann quit

[kpete]

THU MAY 30, 2013 AT 05:56 AM PDT
Heki vs. Bachmann: the real reason Michele Bachmann quit
byT he Big E

Someone from Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign team stole an email list off of Barb Heki's laptop. This list was from the evangelical home school organization for which Heki played a leadership role. She lost that role and was disgraced. She sued.

This lawsuit was a part of the pile of ethical scandals endangering Bachmann's political future.

Yesterday, the court scheduled the trial.

....................................

Here's what it very well could be about...

Pay attention to the date!

A trial date has been set in an Iowa lawsuit alleging that Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., stole and misused an e-mail distribution list maintained by an Iowa home school group during her failed 2012 presidential campaign.

This morning, the seven-day trial in Heki v. Bachmann was scheduled for May 14, 2014, court records show.

Barb Heki, the woman whose email list Team Bachmann stole, will have her day in court. Bachmann's trip to Iowa to negotiate a settlement failed utterly.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130529/NEWS09/130529034/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/30/1212577/-Heki-vs-Bachmann-the-real-reason-Michele-Bachmann-quit

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Who can blame Ms Heki. If I knew I was right I would be taking her to court also. I am

sure she will win.

[The Magistrate]

2. I Agree, Ma'am

She had no chance of re-election with this in the local news.

[msanthrope]

3. Good article. nt

[randome]

4. The trial was scheduled a year from now? What's wrong with this system? Not enough judges?

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[Jim Lane]

5. There's a good chance it's not ready for trial yet.

The linked article refers to the defendants' lawyers attempts to get more information from the Hekis, such as medical records.

Also, the article doesn't mention pretrial testimony by Bachmann or anyone else. That leads me to suspect that those examinations haven't happened yet.

If Iowa practice is like that in New York, the judge might well have issued an order along the lines of "provide these documents by June 30, complete all depositions (pretrial examinations) by December 31, pretrial motions to be made by February 28, 2014."

Having said that, I'll agree with you that part or all of the delay may indeed be a shortage of judges or courtrooms. It's not uncommon for a case that's all ready for trial to languish for a while as it moves its way up the trial calendar, to the point where it can actually be tried.

There's a political dimension to this. The side that benefits from delay is usually the defense, which is usually better connected -- a big rich corporation or its insurance carrier or a government agency or, as here, a government official. Litigants of that sort are generally happy if the process drags along.

[SwissTony]

7. Could Bachmann argue that someone else stole the database

without her knowledge. The first link states Sorenson stole the database. Couldn't Bachmann just say "I don't know anything about it"?

Yes, she tried to obtain a settlement, but that might just be because the issue would reflect badly on her and her re-election chances, irrespective of her level of knowledge.

And how unprofessional of Heki to have a database belonging to another organisation where it could be accessed by someone else. Hasn't she heard of password protection? Could NICHE sue Heki?

I don't have any sympathy for Bachmann. I'm glad she's not running for re-election (even though I'm not American).

[Jim Lane]

8. Yes, that will be an issue.

Bachmann might also be liable for the theft on a theory of respondeat superior, meaning that, in some circumstances, the boss is liable for the actions of the underlings even if the boss didn't direct or even know about those actions.

Beyond all that, the linked article states:

Court papers contend the Hekis also were defamed by the Bachmann campaign’s subsequent failure “to correct media reports about Barbara Heki’s involvement.”

Thus, Bachmann has some exposure even if she's not on the hook for the initial theft.

I can't feel too much anger toward Heki about the security breach. It's likely that her primary security measure was that her laptop was for personal use and was almost always under her direct control. Apparently, she left it unattended for a short time in what she thought was a completely friendly environment. She got burned because she trusted conservative Republicans to be honest. Most DUers wouldn't make that mistake but I can see where she was coming from. In the hypothetical NICHE v. Heki suit, it would be up to the jury whether Heki violated a duty of reasonable care owed to NICHE.

Heki's main protection against suit, though, is that it doesn't look as if NICHE suffered any injury worth suing over. So their members got a couple campaign emails. BFD. NICHE made it clear that it wasn't endorsing Bachmann and it threw Heki and her husband off its board. The amount of money that would fairly compensate NICHE for the damages it suffered would be pretty small.

[SwissTony]

12. Jim, thank you for your reply.

As you will have gathered, I'm not well versed in legal matters.

Thanks.

[rsdsharp]

9. Under the Iowa case processing standards

civil jury trials are to be held within 18 months of filing the suit. Non jury trials within 12 months. Trial setting conferences -- which result in scheduling orders (with trial dates) -- typically happen about 4 months after the case is filed.

So a case set for trial a year after the scheduling order is entered, and about 16 months after filing, is perfectly normal in Iowa. It takes a while to prepare a case, and while the litigants probably only have one case pending, the attorneys (and judges) have quite a few balls up in the air at the same time.

[Major Hogwash]

6. I'm going to miss harkening back to those halycon days . .

. . of watching Michelle eat a corndog on a stick at the Iowa State Fair.

Oh, well, the price of progress, and all that.

[Contrary1]

10. Oh, good...

I was hoping Michele and her delusional rantings didn't fall off the radar.

"...“this decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff.”

[lindysalsagal]

11. How could an evangelical home school data base be all that valuable to Bachman?

I mean, she already had that vote, and it wasn't like it was huge numbers of voters. It's also not likely that seeding that group with her nonsense would result in spreading much beyond it.

Seems like a really stupid thing to do for very little gain, unless they happen to be dripping rich.

I've always thought home schoolers weren't expecially wealthy, or they'd pay tuition for private schools.

I just can't see how that list could help her all that much, considering she was already the queen of the tea baggers.