Author: Gibbons P.C.

That didn’t take long. A panel of the Appellate Division, First Department in People of the State of New York v. Harris, Index No. 080152/2011 has denied Twitter’s motion for a stay of enforcement of the Trial Court’s order requiring the production of Mr. Harris’s tweets. On Tuesday September 11, the Trial Court warned Twitter during a hearing on the District Attorney’s motion to hold Twitter in contempt that Twitter must produce the information in question by Friday September 14 or face a finding of contempt. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Sciarrino further warned that he would review Twitter’s most recent quarterly financial statements in determining the appropriate financial penalty if Twitter does not obey the order. Denial of the stay and the Trial Court’s expected insistence on compliance puts Twitter in a difficult position as production of the tweets will effectively moot their appeal of Judge Sciarrino’s order. Twitter’s next move should be interesting. We will continue to keep you apprised.

We previously reported on the New York District Attorney’s attempts to obtain tweets by a criminal defendant in People of the State of New York v. Harris, Index No. 080152/2011 and the corresponding challenges asserted by the individual user/defendant and Twitter itself on May 23 and June 7. Defendant is accused of disorderly conduct for allegedly having blocked traffic during an Occupy Wall Street protest. The District Attorney has sought defendant’s simultaneous tweets that allegedly will undermine his defense that he was forced onto the street by police officers. The trial court first denied defendant’s motion to quash the subpoena served on the social networking site Twitter and then denied Twitter’s own motion to quash.