Howard Cunningham Is Being Appointed to Office!

Bryan Nelson

WednesdayMar 14 at 3:59pm

Manage Discussion Entry

Howard Cunningham Is Being Appointed to Office!

The case of Howard Cunningham surrounds Cunningham being charged for sleeping with a 15-year-old minor, while on college spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida 1968. Cunningham got off with 1-year probation which he served in Tennessee where we resided. Since the incident, Cunningham became a successful businessman and recently has been up for consideration to joining the President’s Task Force on Interactive Media Services. Once news broke out about Cunningham’s proposition, the woman who Cunningham had sex in 1968, decided to share her side of the story where she states Cunningham took advantage of her. Cunningham decided to sue to the newspaper for publishing private facts.

I believe that Cunningham can’t prove that the information released was private facts because they were not. The case was never sealed therefor, they are open to the public. As stated in the post, “She got the file, she said, from the courthouse. While theoretically, it had been open since it was filed, no one ever looked at it because few people even knew it existed.” The woman got the case by doing what anyone could have done, and she received the documents legally. I do not think Cunningham would win the private facts case.

Cunningham is also suing the newspaper for intrusion, because they took a photo of him while on his private property, even though the photographer was on public property. This is not clear yes or no in my opinion. I think that because Cunningham is a public figure and the photographer was on public property he technically has the right away. It would be if he was just another celebrity being followed by paparazzi. I believe that he also could not sue for this because the photographer wasn’t on Cunningham’s property.

If Cunningham was not a public figure then I believe it could be different, because he could sue because he felt threated and/or set out a restraining order because he believed he was being stalked. Unfortunately, Cunningham is a public figure and sometimes has