Skip to main content

Police raid home searching for owner of Twitter account mocking mayor

mayor-jim-ardis

Covered by the Peoria Journal Star in Illinois this week, seven members of the Peoria Police Department executed a search warrant yesterday in order to discover the identity of someone operating a fake Twitter account that parodied Peoria mayor Jim Ardis (pictured above). The police seized multiple mobile phones in addition to computers stored at the residence. Three people at the home were brought into the police department for questioning and two members of the household that were working at the time were picked up by police from their place of employment and taken to the station.

According to a resident of the home that was familiar with the @peoriamayor Twitter account (now suspended), the account had tweeted about 50 times and clearly stated that it was a joking parody account as opposed to a direct impersonation. However, it wasn’t labeled as a parody until approximately two to three weeks after it was created. The account had about 50 followers, possibly some locals in the area, and likely used a profile shot of the mayor. However, the content of the tweets made references to sex and drugs while comparing Ardis with the now-infamous Rob Ford, the outlandish mayor of Toronto.

Related Videos

Speaking about the raid, resident Michelle Pratt said “They just asked me about the Twitter account, if I knew anything about it. They brought me in like I was a criminal…They said they had a search warrant and took all the electronic devices that had Internet access. They said there had been an Internet crime that occurred at this residence.” Pratt also mentioned that she had to spend three hours in an interrogation room before the police were able to question her.

peoria-police

According to Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard, officers have been seeking the creator and operator of the parody Twitter account in order to charge that person with “false personation of a public official.” If convicted of that charge, that would go on that person’s record as a Class A misdemeanor and could include up to a year of jail time as well as a $2,500 fine. Justifying the search warrant, Settingsgaard said “I don’t agree it was obvious, and in fact it appears that someone went to great lengths to make it appear it was actually from the mayor.”

Up to this point, the investigation has only yielded a single arrest and that was for a drug possession charge. Pratt’s boyfriend, 36-year-old Jacob L. Elliott, was taken into custody for “possessing 30 to 500 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.” Released in a statement to the L.A. Times regarding the primary investigation, Peoria Police Lt. Willie King Jr.said “We’re just still in investigation mode and don’t have a suspect in custody. We have a couple of forensic guys that do this type of crime investigation. If they come up with things, we look into them.”

Of course, Twitter suspended the @peoriamayor account in the recent weeks. According to Twitter’s rules on account suspensions, anyone can request a suspension if the account if using personal information in the form of an email address, phone number, mailing address, social profile links or personal picture. Parody accounts are allowed on Twitter, but the user must not include personal contact information and must clearly specify that the account is a parody.

[Top Photo credit: Ron Johnson / Journal Star]

Editors' Recommendations

Twitter’s handy new search tool makes it easier to find the perfect GIF
twitter new home timeline app

Twitter's testing of a dedicated GIF button first came to light earlier this month, and on Wednesday it announced it as an official feature.

The search button, unveiled by the company in a blog post, will make it easier for Twitter users to jazz up their tweets and direct messages with the entertaining image loops.

Read more
Illinois city owes man $125,000 for raiding his home over fake Twitter account
fake-twitter-account

Kicked off by a police raid during April 2014 in Peoria, Illinois, city officials are now being forced to pay 29-year-old Jonathan Daniel a sum of $125,000 in order to settle a civil rights violations case. Police raided Daniel's home because he had created a parody Twitter account representing Peoria mayor Jim Ardis. Clearly disturbed by the fake Twitter account, Ardis set the wheels in motion to arrest and prosecute Daniel for the fake account based on a charge of "false personation of a public official."

After the incident occurred, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit against the city in federal court last summer. The original suit claimed that the city violated Daniel's First and Fourth Amendment rights, specifically when his personal details were obtained as well as the ensuing raid on his home. In addition, the ACLU added claims of false imprisonment as well as privacy violations during late 2014.

Read more
Google-Twitter integration arrives for desktop search results
google twitter integration arrives for desktop search results lewis tweets

Twitter may have its problems, but one area where it excels is in breaking news updates, and Google knows it. We heard reports of a new deal between Google and Twitter back in February, then tweets started appearing in mobile search results in the middle of May. Now they've finally made it to the desktop as well (if you're searching in English at least) so you can catch up on the latest tweets alongside Google's regular list of matching websites.

Though Google remains particularly adept at finding the No. 1 site for a particular topic or search query, on today's always-on, nonstop Internet, even pages that are a few hours old run the risk of being out-of-date. If there's a breaking news story or a live sports event happening, then Twitter is the place to go — that's why Google has been so keen to renew its relationship with the social media platform.

Read more