Facebook ordered to preserve information in Richmond County defamation case

A Supreme Court of Nova Scotia judge has ordered Facebook to preserve the pages of three accounts as adefamation suit looms amidthe ongoing public conflict in Richmond County over municipalcouncil expenses.

Coun.Steve Sampsonand the county's chief administrative officer, Warren Olsen, asked the court for the order on April 5.

Justice Michael Woodhas ordered Facebook to "preserve the name and email address provided at registration, date and time of registration, and date, time, and IP addresses for recent logins" for three accounts.

Sampsonand Olsen intend to go back to court to get the informationreleased. Olsen told CBC they intend to use it in a defamation lawsuit.

Thoseaccounts were created using the names Jake Sampson, Paul Burke and Jim Davis, although there are questions about whether they're real people.

Jake Sampson, for example,is a frequentposter to the page Taxpayers of Richmond County, NS, but a Facebook page under that name contains only one post and no identifying information.

Targets

Sampson and Olsen have been regular social media targets of Richmond County citizens unhappy with a decision to downsize countycouncil, and Sampson's initial refusalto agree to a forensic audit of council and staff expenses.

• Richmond County council agrees to forensic audit

Woodissued hisruling just a day before Sampsonrevealed he had been the target of a blackmail attempt.

• Richmond County councillor says he's being blackmailed over male escort call

An anonymous letter threatened to make public a phone call Sampson made to a male escort service while in Seattleon business several years ago, if he did not resign from council and never run for public office again.

RCMPareinvestigating.

Sampson and Olsen declined interview requests about the defamation case,saying they prefer to wait until it is further along.