The intimate nature of testimony involved in a sexual harassment suit often leaves the plaintiff feeling vulnerable. But during the defense’s deposition in a 2006 business tort countersuit against Bonnie Van Alstyne, who had sued her former boss at Electronic Scriptorium Ltd. (ESL) for sexual harassment, the invasion of her privacy reached a whole new level.
The defense counsel produced several e-mails from Van Alstyne’s personal America Online (AOL) account as exhibits. She investigated how ESL obtained the messages and discovered that her former boss, Edward Leonard, had inappropriately accessed her personal AOL account on multiple occasions.
