This story was pretty interesting. The guy sounds like a real creep. But this is a lesson to be careful of what type of pictures you take & e-mail to your friends & post on your myspace, face book etc. You never know where they are going to end up later.
Sex Video Sparks Law suit
By Jameson Cook, Macomb Daily Staff Writer
It's a case that raises questions about freedom of expression and boundaries of behavior in the modern world of electronic communication.
A Shelby Township man is accused of unlawfully posting two nude photos and one sexually explicit video, along with a vulgar comment, of a Hmong beauty pageant runner-up onto YouTube.
But the defendant, Nhia Lee, 25, a pageant organizer, claims he did not create any of the objectionable material and merely forwarded an e-mail to a dozen other pageant officials, although he admits trying to portray the woman negatively in an effort to "preserve and promote the integrity of the pageant event," according to his attorney, Jeffrey Cojocar.
And in an odd twist, Cojocar claims the original e-mail containing the material came from an e-mail address on a computer in an Ohio home where the alleged victim, Mai Hlee Xiong, or members of her family, may have resided at the time. Xiong, a Web and graphic designer, now lives in Warren.
However, that fact is disputed by Macomb prosecutors, who say it originated from a computer in the Shelby Township home where Lee was residing with a brother-in-law.
Prosecutors also contend it doesn't matter whether Lee posted the video onto YouTube because he distributed it and the two photographs to the 12 e-mail addresses.
Xiong's civil attorney, Edward Nahat, claims that Lee or another culprit "gained unauthorized access to her MySpace and other accounts" and published "spurious, false and defamatory" items on YouTube and sent them to e-mail addresses, according to an Aug. 22 letter from Nahat to Lee.
Xiong went to police on or about Aug. 20 because despite "several direct demands from Miss Xiong to cease and desist, the person or persons behind this anonymous campaign of character assassination continues to commit these crimes against Miss Xiong," Nahat said.
Lee, who is free on a $15,000 personal bond, was charged last year and faces an April 9 pretrial hearing in front of Judge Peter J. Maceroni in Macomb County Circuit Court in downtown Mount Clemens. The offense is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Assistant Macomb Prosecutor William Harding said Lee posted "two nude photographs and a sexually explicit video of her on YouTube.com" and sent an e-mail with a link to the YouTube posting to "friends and associates of the victim."
The posting was titled, "The Realest Hlee XxXiong" and was posted by the user name, "The Hmong Truth @Yahoo.com."
"Defendant spelled the victim's last name as XxXiong" in a deliberate (attempt) to convey the sexual connotations associated with the term, XXX," Harding said.
The video, Cojocar said, was made for Xiong's boyfriend at the time.
Unconstitutional?
The judge will consider a motion by Cojocar to declare Michigan's law unconstitutional because it is too vague and broad, has a "chilling effect" on free speech, "criminalizes legal behavior" and results in "arbitrary enforcement," Cojocar told The Macomb Daily.
In providing an example of vagueness, Cojocar noted an aspect of the law's definition of "posting."
"They define 'posting' with the word 'posting,'" Cojocar said.
The state law's definition of "post a message" is: "Transferring, sending, posting, publishing, disseminating, or otherwise communicating or attempting to transfer, send, post, publish, disseminate, or otherwise communicate information, whether truthful or untruthful, about the victim."
Cojocar said the law's vagueness provides law enforcement with too much latitude.
"To now find that forwarding an e-mail message to known recipients rises to the level of criminal behavior under the statute because of its all-encompassing definition is truly a slap in the face of the constitutional protections which are afforded to not only Mr. Lee, but every single individual located within this state," Cojocar said. "It would allow police officers, prosecutors and potentially juries to determine what e-mails they found to be distasteful enough to possibly impugn criminal liability to a charged individual."
His client is suffering from misplaced consequences for trying to do the right thing, even though he concedes forwarding the e-mail in anticipation of the 2008 pageant.
"Mr. Lee did something for the benefit and protection of his community as a whole, and he is now being subjected to criminal prosecution for doing something that is entirely legal," Cojocar said in the brief.
"He was aware of how this activity and these photographs would be directly contrary to the pageant qualifications, the Hmong community as a whole, and to the way in which Miss Xiong represented herself to the pageant Board, community elders, and the Hmong community itself."
Defends statute
Harding in his response brief defends the statute and his office's decision to charge Lee, as well as decrying Lee's behavior.
"The statute is directed at communication that is combined with the specific intent to cause certain conduct directed towards the victim and does not infringe on freedom of expression," Harding said.
Quoting the state law, Harding pointed out this situation meets the criteria that the offender "must know or have reason to know" the posting could result in "two or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim" and "would cause the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested."
"The victim has received numerous contacts as a result of the posting of the images," Harding added in the brief. "The contacts included those of a sexual nature and angry and insulting messages from members of the Hmong community. As a result, the victim has sought the assistance of a mental health professional."
Harding discussed Lee's motives.
"By his own admission, the e-mails were designed to provoke anger and outrage in those individuals which would be directed towards the victim," Harding said. "Cowardly, hiding behind the anonymity of an e-mail screen name, defendant sent an e-mail accusing defendant of being a 'whore.'"
Pageant player
The communications were exposed last summer after Xiong had finished in second place, "first runner-up," in the Miss Hmong Michigan contest in November 2007, held at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. The winner, coincidentally, was Lee's sister, according to Cojocar.
The winner received $2,000 and the top two runners-up won $700 and $500, respectively, according to an exhibit provided with Cojocar's motion.
Xiong also has won at least one other state Hmong beauty pageant and finished as second runner-up in the Miss International Competition of 2008, according to the Web site www.hmongnewyear.us.
Lee, meanwhile, has been heavily involved in organizing Hmong pageants, including serving as master of ceremonies, Cojocar said.
Cojocar said in the other unidentified state where Xiong won a Hmong pageant, organizers "have asked that she be stripped of the beauty pageant title."
Cojocar notes that Xiong is no stranger to self-promotion. She has had other videos and photos of herself posted on the Internet. She has published an online "cultural magazine," 18xeem.com. One edition shows her on the cover with the headline, "Hlee Xiong. Miss Lao Hmong. Confessions of a Beauty Queen. A Shift in Culture. The stories you never heard." In a first-person story, she provides a G-rated tale of her experiences.
Information provided about Xiong on a Web site says she graduated from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2009/0...00004806326.txt
Sex Video Sparks Law suit
By Jameson Cook, Macomb Daily Staff Writer
It's a case that raises questions about freedom of expression and boundaries of behavior in the modern world of electronic communication.
A Shelby Township man is accused of unlawfully posting two nude photos and one sexually explicit video, along with a vulgar comment, of a Hmong beauty pageant runner-up onto YouTube.
But the defendant, Nhia Lee, 25, a pageant organizer, claims he did not create any of the objectionable material and merely forwarded an e-mail to a dozen other pageant officials, although he admits trying to portray the woman negatively in an effort to "preserve and promote the integrity of the pageant event," according to his attorney, Jeffrey Cojocar.
And in an odd twist, Cojocar claims the original e-mail containing the material came from an e-mail address on a computer in an Ohio home where the alleged victim, Mai Hlee Xiong, or members of her family, may have resided at the time. Xiong, a Web and graphic designer, now lives in Warren.
However, that fact is disputed by Macomb prosecutors, who say it originated from a computer in the Shelby Township home where Lee was residing with a brother-in-law.
Prosecutors also contend it doesn't matter whether Lee posted the video onto YouTube because he distributed it and the two photographs to the 12 e-mail addresses.
Xiong's civil attorney, Edward Nahat, claims that Lee or another culprit "gained unauthorized access to her MySpace and other accounts" and published "spurious, false and defamatory" items on YouTube and sent them to e-mail addresses, according to an Aug. 22 letter from Nahat to Lee.
Xiong went to police on or about Aug. 20 because despite "several direct demands from Miss Xiong to cease and desist, the person or persons behind this anonymous campaign of character assassination continues to commit these crimes against Miss Xiong," Nahat said.
Lee, who is free on a $15,000 personal bond, was charged last year and faces an April 9 pretrial hearing in front of Judge Peter J. Maceroni in Macomb County Circuit Court in downtown Mount Clemens. The offense is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Assistant Macomb Prosecutor William Harding said Lee posted "two nude photographs and a sexually explicit video of her on YouTube.com" and sent an e-mail with a link to the YouTube posting to "friends and associates of the victim."
The posting was titled, "The Realest Hlee XxXiong" and was posted by the user name, "The Hmong Truth @Yahoo.com."
"Defendant spelled the victim's last name as XxXiong" in a deliberate (attempt) to convey the sexual connotations associated with the term, XXX," Harding said.
The video, Cojocar said, was made for Xiong's boyfriend at the time.
Unconstitutional?
The judge will consider a motion by Cojocar to declare Michigan's law unconstitutional because it is too vague and broad, has a "chilling effect" on free speech, "criminalizes legal behavior" and results in "arbitrary enforcement," Cojocar told The Macomb Daily.
In providing an example of vagueness, Cojocar noted an aspect of the law's definition of "posting."
"They define 'posting' with the word 'posting,'" Cojocar said.
The state law's definition of "post a message" is: "Transferring, sending, posting, publishing, disseminating, or otherwise communicating or attempting to transfer, send, post, publish, disseminate, or otherwise communicate information, whether truthful or untruthful, about the victim."
Cojocar said the law's vagueness provides law enforcement with too much latitude.
"To now find that forwarding an e-mail message to known recipients rises to the level of criminal behavior under the statute because of its all-encompassing definition is truly a slap in the face of the constitutional protections which are afforded to not only Mr. Lee, but every single individual located within this state," Cojocar said. "It would allow police officers, prosecutors and potentially juries to determine what e-mails they found to be distasteful enough to possibly impugn criminal liability to a charged individual."
His client is suffering from misplaced consequences for trying to do the right thing, even though he concedes forwarding the e-mail in anticipation of the 2008 pageant.
"Mr. Lee did something for the benefit and protection of his community as a whole, and he is now being subjected to criminal prosecution for doing something that is entirely legal," Cojocar said in the brief.
"He was aware of how this activity and these photographs would be directly contrary to the pageant qualifications, the Hmong community as a whole, and to the way in which Miss Xiong represented herself to the pageant Board, community elders, and the Hmong community itself."
Defends statute
Harding in his response brief defends the statute and his office's decision to charge Lee, as well as decrying Lee's behavior.
"The statute is directed at communication that is combined with the specific intent to cause certain conduct directed towards the victim and does not infringe on freedom of expression," Harding said.
Quoting the state law, Harding pointed out this situation meets the criteria that the offender "must know or have reason to know" the posting could result in "two or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim" and "would cause the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested."
"The victim has received numerous contacts as a result of the posting of the images," Harding added in the brief. "The contacts included those of a sexual nature and angry and insulting messages from members of the Hmong community. As a result, the victim has sought the assistance of a mental health professional."
Harding discussed Lee's motives.
"By his own admission, the e-mails were designed to provoke anger and outrage in those individuals which would be directed towards the victim," Harding said. "Cowardly, hiding behind the anonymity of an e-mail screen name, defendant sent an e-mail accusing defendant of being a 'whore.'"
Pageant player
The communications were exposed last summer after Xiong had finished in second place, "first runner-up," in the Miss Hmong Michigan contest in November 2007, held at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. The winner, coincidentally, was Lee's sister, according to Cojocar.
The winner received $2,000 and the top two runners-up won $700 and $500, respectively, according to an exhibit provided with Cojocar's motion.
Xiong also has won at least one other state Hmong beauty pageant and finished as second runner-up in the Miss International Competition of 2008, according to the Web site www.hmongnewyear.us.
Lee, meanwhile, has been heavily involved in organizing Hmong pageants, including serving as master of ceremonies, Cojocar said.
Cojocar said in the other unidentified state where Xiong won a Hmong pageant, organizers "have asked that she be stripped of the beauty pageant title."
Cojocar notes that Xiong is no stranger to self-promotion. She has had other videos and photos of herself posted on the Internet. She has published an online "cultural magazine," 18xeem.com. One edition shows her on the cover with the headline, "Hlee Xiong. Miss Lao Hmong. Confessions of a Beauty Queen. A Shift in Culture. The stories you never heard." In a first-person story, she provides a G-rated tale of her experiences.
Information provided about Xiong on a Web site says she graduated from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2009/0...00004806326.txt
