New Hampshire: judge rules Democrats not limited in damages in phone-jamming case
The Concord Monitor reports: In a preliminary ruling on the Election Day 2002 phone-jamming lawsuit, a judge yesterday denied a request from Republicans to restrict the potential damages awarded Democrats to the dollar cost of the lost phone service.
The civil suit related to the phone-jamming is scheduled to begin Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester. State Democrats have asked the court to award them up to $4.1 million for the damages associated with a Republican program to block Democratic phone banks in New Hampshire to thwart the party's get-out-the-vote effort.
The defendants - a group that includes the state Republican Party, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee - filed a motion to exclude evidence beyond the phone-system damages and restrict the potential award to less than $5,000, which they calculated as the value of the lost phone lines. Republicans said they blocked 13 Democratic phone lines for 82 minutes before they called off the illegal program.
Judge Philip Mangones, who will hear the case, ruled yesterday that the Democrats may seek greater damages and present evidence to argue that the phone jamming compromised Election Day activities for which the party had spent months planning. However, he also suggested that it would be improbable for the Democrats to recover a multimillion-dollar award. -- Concord Monitor Online Article - GOP denied in phone-jam case - Your News Source - 03301