Police Apologize for Leak of Abortion Activist’s Address

ANAHEIM —  Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said Saturday that he has apologized to a Tustin man, a volunteer at a family-planning clinic, whose home address was apparently illegally obtained in November from a Police Department computer.

Chris Criner, who is also a member of the Orange County Pro-Choice Coalition, filed a complaint with the state Department of Motor Vehicles in the belief that privileged DMV information had been obtained by anti-abortion protesters.

Criner said Saturday that in November he became worried when a member of an anti-abortion group that has been picketing Doctors Family Planning, the Tustin clinic where his wife works and where he volunteers on weekends, stated that he knew where the couple live.

Then in February, Criner said, about 50 protesters demonstrated in front of his home.

Molloy said the DMV was able to easily determine that Criner’s license plate number had been run on a computer at the Anaheim Police Department. The computer produced the man’s home address.

Molloy said the computer check was unauthorized, but noted there is no way to know if the DMV information gleaned from the computer was used by the protesters who demonstrated outside Criner’s home.

“We can identify the computer and who logged onto the computer,” Molloy said. He said he has been unable to discover who actually ran Criner’s license number.

He refused to identify the employee who logged onto the machine, saying the worker reported that the machine was turned on all day and could have been used by anyone in the office.

Molloy said he has closed the investigation, but instructed his staff not to leave DMV-accessing computers turned on and unattended.

Meanwhile, Criner worries about who may have his address.

“So now I look behind my back when I drive down the street,” he said “I check my mailbox to see if there is something there like a bomb or a picture of a fetus. I have a wife I am concerned about and I want her to be left alone.”