Judge's daughter hit-and-run leaves man with broken neck. Court 'loses' documents of case, she avoids prosecution. Blogger writes about it. Court issues gag order without a hearing, blogger forced to delete all posts about the daughter.

A Central Berkshire District Court judge on Wednesday granted Meredith Nilan a harassment prevention order against local blogger Dan Valenti, and ordered him to remove any references to her from his website, Planet Valenti.

Nilan, 24, had faced criminal charges related to a car accident in December that seriously injured a Pittsfield man, and has been referenced in 44 postings on Valenti's website that are associated with that incident.

In granting the harassment prevention order, Judge Bethzaida Sanabria-Vega ordered Valenti to remove "any and all references" of Nilan from "any and all websites, blogs, etc. ..." The order also requires Valenti to stay 100 yards away from Nilan, stay away from both her place of employment and home, and refrain from any contact or abuse.

"[I]t would appear this is a violation of my first amendment rights that guarantee freedom of the press," Valenti said in an email message on Wednesday. He called freedom of the press "the best safeguard to our free institutions" and said when it "comes under fire, the entire community loses. That is the more serious question here."

In a statement to The Eagle, Nilan said, "As many who have been blogged about by Dan Valenti know, much of what he writes is false, and even what is true is only partially true and then distorted by innuendo. I flat out deny just about every so-called ‘fact' he has published in my case, and that includes those.

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