California city settles with bloggers who published police records, walks back criminal hacking claims

A southern California city agreed to settle in a case against two citizen bloggers accused of publishing confidential city hall documents, including police misconduct records, obtained without permission.

The bloggers had taken documents off of a city file sharing account, publishing some of them that they viewed as newsworthy. Fullerton officials initially accused the bloggers of hacking into their system, obtaining the files illegally, but further investigation revealed the files were unintentionally left publicly accessible and that the file sharing account did not have the proper password protections.  "The city has worked to protect the confidentiality of non-public documents while assuring robust public access to public records," the agreement says. "While our attempts to secure these documents after their unintentional release was well-meaning, it had consequences for Mr. Curlee and Mr. Ferguson that we did not intend. The City regrets this misunderstanding."