Privacy rights on trial

Eron Ben-Yehuda

A Huntington Beach resident faces a trial Wednesday for maliciously

disclosing the home address of the city’s police chief.

Authorities charged John Merzweiler, 48, with the misdemeanor after

catching him handing out flyers on the street last July 4th, Huntington

Beach Police Sgt. Janet Perez said.

Merzweiler’s conduct showed malice because, at the time of his arrest,

the retired postal worker “expressed displeasure” with the police

department, Perez said. In the past, he accused officers of police

brutality, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Chuck Thomas said.

The flyers he handed out included not only the address of Chief Ron

Lowenberg, but those of two judges and all the city council members

except Dave Garofalo, said Tori Richards, a spokeswoman for the Orange

County District Attorney’s office.

“If somebody wants my home address, it’s in the phone book,” Garofalo

said.

That information also can be found about every property owner at the

County Recorder’s Office, but the law gives special protection to police

officers because people they arrest may want to retaliate against them,

Perez said. “Sometimes what we do does not make people happy.”

The same can be said for politicians, but they don’t receive the same

legal privilege.

“There are so many crazy people out there,” Garofalo said. “You have to

live with that or get out of office.”

Mayor Peter Green, though, said city officials, like everyone else, are

entitled to some privacy, “your home being your castle,” he said.

Although the public can access his home address, Green doesn’t approve of

people like Merzweiler handing out the information on a street corner.

“I’ve had people threaten me at times and I’d rather they not know where

I live.”

No one has physically threatened Garofalo at home, although one

“agitator” did knock on his door, he said.

But there was one confrontation in which the police had to step in, he

said. “When someone is tapping on your chest at City Hall saying, ‘I know

where you live. I’m going to get you,’ that’s pretty personal.”

While some people make him “nervous,” City Councilman Ralph Bauer said

the potential for violence has never reared its ugly head as far as he

knows. “If it’s going on, it’s not obvious to me.”

Lowenberg refused to comment.