Police Want Video Posted On Web Site Removed

LEOMINSTER, Mass. -- A Leominster woman won a round in her online standoff with state police on Tuesday.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported Tuesday that Mary Jean hosts a Web site that is critical of Worcester County District Attorney John Conte. A video clip of a Northborough man's arrest that was posted on the Web site sparked a legal battle.

Paul Pechonis has also been running a Web site that is critical of authority. Police said that Pechonis has been posting threatening notes on his Web site against a judge in Westborough.

"I don't even know the gentleman that these alleged threats are targeted to," Pechonis said.

When Pechonis was arrested, a home video recorder captured state police putting handcuffs on Pechonis. The video ended up on Jean's Web site.

"I was helping someone who came to me as a victim who was asking me to help him because he didn't know what to do. He was extremely frustrated," Jean said.

Pechonis would not discuss the video. State police said that the taping occurred without the officers' knowledge and was in violation of state law.

Jean said that she did not make the video and did not break any laws by putting it on her Web site.

"It does not seem right to me, as a parent and someone who has lived in Massachusetts all my life, that they would want to charge me for this. It just doesn't seem appropriate," Jean said.

State police sent Jean a cease and desist letter and suggested that she remove what officials called an "illegal recording."

"Their letter to her, a so-called cease and desist letter, is improper use of police power to try to intimidate the publisher," Jean's attorney Dan Shea said.

A federal court has granted Jean a restraining order to allow her to keep the video on her Web site until a court hearing later this month.