Foxy Felon Threatens TSG

FEBRUARY 22--Claiming that Internet surfers have been using her mug shot for 'private sexual gratification,' a convicted drug dealer is threatening to sue The Smoking Gun unless her booking photo is removed from our site. So meet Casey Hicks. Again. It's been a few years since we've thought about the comely 25-year-old Floridian, whose photo first appeared on TSG in 2002 as part of a collection of mug shots that we dubbed 'Foxy Felons.' In June 2000, Hicks was arrested after selling 49 Ecstasy tablets to an undercover cop in Rockland County, New York. In January 2001, she copped a reduced felony plea for the $400 drug deal. By the time of her sentencing, Hicks had relocated to Florida, where she subsequently began serving a probationary term of nearly five years (we discovered her mug shot, which you can find below, on the web site of Florida's Department of Corrections). Now, with her term of community supervision soon ending, Hicks is threatening to sue us if we don't excise her mug shot. In a February 13 letter, attorney Terry Bork contends that our publication of Hicks's mug shot and details of her rap sheet somehow invades the young felon's privacy and holds her up to ridicule. The posting of his client's mug shot, Bork claims, has led Hicks to become fearful for her safety, since she has become a topic of discussion of unnamed 'numerous blogs.' Making matters worse, he adds, our posting of Hicks's photo 'has invited members of the public' to use her mug shot for masturbatory purposes. The self- gratification claim appears to be based on unspecified blog entries. Through our counsel, we've politely declined Bork's request. (4 pages)