It is hard to fault someone for reacting badly to the news that his or her wife or husband is engaging in adultery, but you better be careful when you react because you could get yourself in hot water. In this day and age of electronic communication, it is all to easy to fire off inflammatory emails into cyberspace. It took a trip to the Virginia Supreme Court to absolve a Texas physician who sent a barrage of very unflattering emails to his wife when he became embarrassed and angry after he discovered what appeared to be an online advertisement for sex placed by her on Craigslist. In the emails, he accused her of having "sex with anonymous strangers" on Craigslist, of having a "new hobby of soliciting sex on CL," of having "risky gutter sex," of "vacuum[ing] his baby to death" and of being a "coke whore baby killing prostitute." This doctor was convicted of harassment by computer, a decision that was upheld by the Virginia Court of Appeals. In order to be convicted of harassment by computer, the prosecution must prove that the communications were obscene. According to the Virginia Supreme Court in the case of Barson v. Commonwealth, the Court of Appeals erred in applying the "dictionary" definition of obscenity instead of the legal definition. The legal definition is a higher standard and, as a result, the doctor should have been found not guilty.
-Rob Hagy, Charlottesville Divorce Lawyer