Lawyers Identify Johnny Doc’s “Anonymous” Philly.com Commenter
Electrical union boss John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty is suing “anonymous” Philly.com commenter “FBPDPLT” for calling him a “pedophile” in a 2012 comment, and back in March, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jacqueline Allen ordered Philly.com to turn over any identifying information it had on the commenter. Philly.com gave Dougherty’s attorney an IP address, and now the previously anonymous commenter has been named in a court filing as Stephen J. Montemuro.
Attorney Charles Hardy of Sprague & Sprague has filed paperwork with the court, asking that the case caption be changed from John J. Dougherty vs. FBPDPLT to John J. Dougherty vs. Stephen Montemuro. Also filed was an amended complaint naming Montemuro as the defendant.
According to the complaint, this is the comment that Montemuro wrote using the screen name FBPDPLT (the ellipses appear as written in the comment):
Johnny Doc .. the pedophile. alias … “sparky boy” should not be ridiculing anyone … his hope that Dom Giordano comes home an finds his sone with another boy watching “Brokeback mountain” is probably more like his own experience … except he was the sofa sitter
The since-deleted comment appeared on a story by Daily News writer Chris Brennan about a feud between 1210 WPHT-AM radio host Dom Giordano and Dougherty stemming from anti-gay comments made by the president of Chick-fil-A. (Remember that?)
Montemuro, who is 63, lives in Bensalem. His Twitter feed is filled with all sorts of ultra-right remarks and memes. His Twitter profile identifies him as follows: “Conservative Veteran…HATE socialism, since when is capitalism a dirty word?…/ Capt.-.Safe Boating Instructor -Deliveries..Fireboat pilot”
And the FBPDPLT YouTube account brings up a list of videos like “CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA” and “URGENT! OBAMA Signs Anti Protest Bill FREE SPEECH & Protest will get you JAIL TIME!”
According to the court docket, Montemuro’s original attorneys have withdrawn from the case. I called Montemuro twice, and he hung up on me both times.
If I were him, I’d be building up my legal war chest to go to battle with one of the most powerful men in Philadelphia.
Follow @VictorFiorillo on Twitter.
