CANTON, Miss. (AP) — A blogger who pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to breaking in to a nursing home and shooting unauthorized video of the ailing wife of a U.S. senator was sentenced Monday to serve more than two years in prison.
Twenty-nine-year-old Clayton Kelly of Pearl, Mississippi, shot the video of Sen. Thad Cochran’s then-wife in 2014.
On Monday, Mississippi Circuit Judge William Chapman gave Kelly the full five-year maximum sentence, but he’ll be in prison for half that time. The rest is on probation.
Images of Rose Cochran, who had dementia, appeared online briefly during a tough Republican primary. Investigators say Kelly was one of several people who conspired to produce the video suggesting Thad Cochran was having an affair.
Cochran’s campaign said he wasn’t involved in an improper relationship.
Rose Cochran died in December. Thad Cochran last month married a longtime aide.
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So why hasn’t James O’Keefe been put in jail? Oh, that’s right. He only targets Democrats.
Bloggers especially those reporting on matters of public interest deserve First Amendment protections the same way the mainstream media do. I hope the Courts considered this and it wasn’t political vendetta.
Sen. Cochran’s wife did not and could not have approved of this invasion of her personal and medical privacy. Why do you assume that the results would be any different for some one from the main stream media?
Where does the First Amendment protect breaking in? I hadn’t noticed that clause.