Jail guard busted for incriminating City of Heroes forum posts

by Ross Miller { Sep 10th 2007 at 7:25PM }

Not all villains wear the proper attire. Take 30-year old David B. Thompson, for example, who posts on the City of Heroes message boards as Trafalgar (and has since changed his name to Deadwalk). In real life, Thompson is a corrections officer from Portland, Oregon with a penchant for using his taser, perhaps an unnecessarily excessive amount, and bragging about it online during work hours.

Thompson is currently being investigated after a fellow message board member tipped off the Portland Tribune for some disturbing messages, such as this one from August 25: "I don't know about that. I crushed a dude's eye socket from repeatedly punching him in it, then I charged him with menacing and harassment (of me) he took a plea to get away from me."

Also of concern is the amount of posting, which might average 13 posts per shift. In one 24-hour period in particular, Thompson posted 64 times across across 13 threads, according to the Tribune.

[Thanks, Bill]

Tags: cityofheroes, oregon, portland

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Miles @ Sep 10th 2007 7:29PM

I thought all these forums were supposed to keep your information secret. But it seems if your an EA exec, or Microsoft VP , all you have to do is just ask for it.

I honestly don't care if this guy has been tuning up prisoners , that's for a court to decide. But what's up with these message boards just giving up all your personal info at the drop of a hat?

eldee @ Sep 11th 2007 2:06AM

Uh seriously.. think about what you're saying. If all of this turns out to be true, the man is a criminal. He falsified a police report after beating a man into hospitalization, causing that man's prison sentence to be extended.

Lets think of a more extreme case: let's imagine a guy on that same message board bragging about molesting a kid. Ah! It suddenly becomes important to turn his information over to the authorities so he can be investigated. If he's innocent and was just fucking around on the internet, all he gets out of it is some well deserved embarrassment. If he's guilty, he needs to be behind bars.

SneezyPorcupine @ Sep 11th 2007 2:27AM

I find that it makes perfect sense. So what if his info is being given out? Almost any online service u sign up for has that information written in their EULAs stating that if a warrant or court order is provided, [insert name of service here] the parent company will do all that is required to abide by state and federal laws.

Besides, if this guy is a correctional facility guard he should be under investigation for this kind of behaviour and even if found innocent he should at least be required to participate in some sort of mental and competency testing!

Remember, any person who is a part of a law enforcement group SHOULD be kept to a higher standard and held accountable for their actions, and believe me when i tell you, when you are under federal review in a departmental investigation, ur always either a suspect or a witness.

HigherBe1ng @ Sep 10th 2007 7:41PM

Ok, now I got to say his right have been violated. Ok, he wasted Government time, and surfed the net. The gov has proof of that, and should cut his pay for those hours he was posting. To the other crap... Ok now I'm sure we ALL stretched the truth before on the internet... Who says he didnt?

Check this out:
I killed 200,000 people yesturday
I have a WMD
I modchip nintendos, xboxes, and playstations...

Because of this post, should I get investigated now?

I mean sure, his crime(if its real) is pretty f.cked up, but there is no proof... I mean hell, maybe he stepped away from the computer, his co-worker jumped on the PC punched in that incriminating message, and then turned around and then tipped off the Portland Tribune....

oh god we all known whats about to happen... I cant wait for Jack to jump up and scream its GTA's fault he beat a guy up, and thats why videogames should be banned... This is gonna rub off on the game industry some how

ELUNO @ Sep 10th 2007 7:46PM

That's why he is being investigated. They haven't said he is guilty.

ill trooper @ Sep 10th 2007 8:15PM

"Because of this post, should I get investigated now?"

Ummm... No, dude. No, an investigation of you will not be necessary, because you don't have a history of talking about killing, and by using a gnarly hyperbole like "200,000 people killed" you sound like you're joking (We didn't hear about 200,000 people disappearing in your area, so we know you're not to be taken seriously).

Get realistic, you're not the only person on earth that is "logical." People probably noticed patterns in his posts, and thought long and hard before making the next move of reporting him. He's being investigated because of a history of questionable and consistant posts, with detail about his job and his self-alleged access to (and violence toward) prisoners. That was deemed as enough cause to start an investigation. To look for the 'proof' you say isn't there: they can start to piece together a history of the attacks he says he pulled off, his work schedule, and the dates on the pleas and transfers he claims he caused.

Anonymity on a forum does not extend a special privilege to allow you to threaten others or discuss illegal acts. He went beyond his fair use of the forums, and left himself open for this investigation.

mr mobius @ Sep 10th 2007 7:42PM

What is it with people called Thompson?

Micheal82 @ Sep 10th 2007 9:48PM

No wonder Jack Thompson hates video games because he was a bad parent and his son became a violent person who plays video games. He had a first hand experince in the matter the mistory of JT has been solved.

Bill Tagliabata @ Sep 10th 2007 7:43PM

Miles: It's called a subpoena, you jackass. When the courts deliver one, Microsoft and everybody else are required by law to cough up the details.

blooh @ Sep 10th 2007 7:43PM

sounds more like he was a villain

(had to get that joke outta the way)

but that's pretty fucked up. I seriously doubt he's the only guard who acts like that. I'd hate to be assigned to investigate this. Maybe he'll end up in the same prison and get shivved? that'd be funny

jason @ Sep 10th 2007 7:43PM

I wonder if this is the Trafalgar guy on silky venom forums? I hope they put this idiot in jail if this really happened.

loungemonkey @ Sep 10th 2007 7:46PM

Yeah Portland....I love my city.

NoHitHair @ Sep 11th 2007 1:57AM

I'm always in shock whenever we're in the news. Especially when it's related to video games.

blooh @ Sep 10th 2007 7:46PM

btw, why's the pic from bioshock?

hvnlysoldr @ Sep 10th 2007 8:19PM

He's said he abuses his taser. If you got a suggestion we'd like to hear.

mrlogical @ Sep 10th 2007 7:47PM

Good, this jerk should be thrown in with the prisoners he's abusing.

TRUTH @ Sep 10th 2007 7:55PM

EXACLY!!! Throw that Bi*** in there!!! He Deserves a taste! What a POS!

ShortFuse @ Sep 10th 2007 7:56PM

Um... I think that's a little too harsh. Really, Death Penalty?

blooh @ Sep 10th 2007 8:44PM

if the guards did their job (*) he wouldn't necessarily be shivved

*they could use the computers less during their shifts, for example

ShortFuse @ Sep 10th 2007 7:51PM

Reminds of something I do at work all the time. I work at a preschool on 113th and 4th Ave in NYC. A lot of the times the little kids some of the little kids start giving me trouble. I don't know what wrong with their parents. Kids need discipline. This one time, I punched a 3 year right on the lip knocked out two of his teeth. He started crying and saying he hated me. He didn't learn so I punched his gut! LOL!!? Right!? Point of the story is, he doesn't give me trouble anymore. Same with this little girl, 4 years old. Starting give me an attitude. She won't dare to talk back to me now, unless she wants her mouth clean out by my big fat seven inch

HOW MANY OF YOU WOULD REALLY JUST SIT THERE IF THIS WERE TRUE! (By the way, it's not true, i'm just proving a point) The guy is an idiot for saying the things publicly in a forum and I believe he should be investigated.

playwhutyalike @ Sep 10th 2007 8:49PM

Wants her mouth cleaned out by your big fat seven inch. That is f'n funny. I'm still dying from laughter over here.

Lemmiwinks @ Sep 10th 2007 7:52PM

Further proof that working in any corrections/law-enforcement arena corrupts one's morality.

David @ Sep 10th 2007 7:53PM

He must not have see what happens to Brad Bellick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Bellick

ill trooper @ Sep 10th 2007 7:54PM

Well, viddy that... sounds like he fancys a bit of the ultra-violence!

I respect forum privacy, but openly discussing illegal activities should draw attention from the moderators, and in this case, it did. If what he's doing is against forum rules, that pretty much signs away all his rights to privacy.

Rights like fair speech, privacy, etc., are often waived when it's shown you're behaving in a menacing way towards others, in other words, he could have said he _thinks_ prisoners should have their eye sockets punched in, but by saying he actually does it, true or not, he goes beyond that fair speech right and opens himself up for investigation.

Kazi @ Sep 10th 2007 8:31PM

+2 internets for the reference to one of my favorite Kubrick movies.

Anyways, yadda yadda, sucks for the prisoners, so on, hope he gets what he deserves, ect.

HigherBe1ng @ Sep 10th 2007 8:01PM

@ ELUNO
ok, i understand he's been investigated... my point is that they shouldnt be able to start an investigation based off of a forum post...

Dont get me wrong, I'm not standing up for this guy in anyway, I do believe he should get what he deserves... but unfortunately I dont think the government has the right to do anything about it. Like I said, people exaggerate and lie on message boards, and its not the governments business to sort out all the true posts and all the fake posts, and then investigate the ones they feel have some sort of validity.

I mean hell, even in school they tell you not to use message boards for resources because they are inaccurate...

GLP @ Sep 10th 2007 8:14PM

If you claim something to be true in a forum post, and said "thing" is an illegal activity, you should be prepared to be investigated. Sure, it won't happen a VAST majority of the time as the resources to do so simply don't exist. Still, admitting you take part in a violent crime, which this is, even against a prisoner, is an open invitation for an investigation.

They aren't tossing him in prison. They are looking into the claims made by the individual. He really brought this on himself, and you still question it? I suppose if you had a brother (or sister) in prison, for lets say drugs, that was getting physically assaulted by a guard you wouldn't want that person to stop and be held accountable for their actions? Sure the person in prison deserves to be there for their crimes against society, but they also deserve to be protected from unwarranted bodily harm as much as realistically possible, especially from the guards.

Lets not sugarcoat this. This guy is a moron for his comments, no matter what, and if guilty of what he describes, the sort of person who isn't mentally capable of holding a position of "power" responsibly.

This is a good thing.

Diskoboy @ Sep 10th 2007 8:06PM

I suddenly have the urge to listen to "Cop Killer".

Mattt Dargis @ Sep 10th 2007 8:08PM

Good to hear he's being investigated. Asshole prison guards.

colin @ Sep 10th 2007 8:12PM

"averages thirteen post a shift"

whew, safe for now, i only post 5 or 6 a shift.

Travos @ Sep 10th 2007 8:27PM

Hey Deadwalk is the name of my character on CoH!

blooh @ Sep 10th 2007 8:47PM

busted

Kalroy @ Sep 10th 2007 9:36PM

It's more likely that he's an attention monger and the investigation will end up like it did with Scott Beauchamp (who wrote a series of articles for TNR about his military life) which found that Beauchamp made up all his stories, but which turned up actual evidence of wrongdoing that gets him burned. In Beauchamp's case he blogged about his deployment dates, in this creep's case he's committing "fraud, waste and abuse" by doing this during government time.

Kalroy

Electriclectic @ Sep 10th 2007 10:15PM

As a lvl 35 Elec/Elec blaster on the Infinity server, I disapprove of this guards actions. Let the PvP beatings commence!

whiny bitch @ Sep 10th 2007 10:37PM

"Also of concern is the amount of posting, which might average 13 posts per shift."

Get a real job, then complain about people posting on work time. (While you're at work. 13 times.)

Anticrawl @ Sep 10th 2007 11:13PM

This would be an invasion of his privacy. The question we should all be asking is why this hasn't been brought up at work face to face. Clearly the warden and other guards condone this kind of behaviour. I doubt you'd miss the screams of a tazer victim or someones face getting crushed in. Why did it take looking at a forum on the internet to learn of his actions? The warden better be charged with something as well.

k0sm0s @ Sep 10th 2007 11:20PM

currently in singapore, we had someone suing the public for bittorrented anime.. he was at first on a winning spree, until someone spotted a post about him gloating online over his victories on a forum.. that's when all the tables were turned against him..

internet nowadays..

Onoskelis @ Sep 11th 2007 1:05AM

He is a 4channer.

higherbeing @ Sep 11th 2007 1:53AM

@ ill trooper

Going by your post, anybody that asks how to back up a CD/DVD/Game, or how to install a modchip in a system on a message board should get investigated...

honestly, if he's able to pull something off like that over and over again there is problem else where that needs to be addressed....

Crono (NDF - Fire Ring) @ Sep 11th 2007 10:30AM

Except backing up a CD-DVD is called fair use, thats why places like doom9.org haven't been shut down yet. Also, I dunno what dumbass judge determined that installing mod chips was illegal, but that is also covered under fair use,

DMCA freaking sucks. Vote out any house member or senator that voted for the DMCA.