Constitutional Law

Mass. man in threatening rap video gets year in jail

By By The Associated Press

TAUNTON, Mass. — A Fairhaven man convicted of threatening law enforcement officials in a rap video posted on the Internet has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Jason Foley was also sentenced yesterday in Taunton District Court to two years of probation and banned from accessing the Internet or using a computer.

Foley was convicted last week of witness intimidation and threatening to commit a crime.

The 29-year-old Foley was one of five men who appeared in the YouTube video, in which prosecutors say a Massachusetts state trooper and a probation officer were threatened by name. The video has since been removed.

Another man, 25-year-old Matthew Rufino of New Bedford, pleaded guilty earlier this year to threatening to commit a crime and served 90 days in jail.

Lawyers for the men defended the video on First Amendment grounds.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).