A lingering court battle continues over whether the client of a private investigator gets to remain anonymous. “John Doe” appealed a judge’s decision in August. Second Judicial District Court Judge David Hardy confirmed a discovery commissioner’s determination that Doe’s anonymity was not legally protected.
Doe hired private investigator David McNeely. McNeely placed GPS tracking devices on Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve’s and then-Washoe County Commissioner Vaughn Hartung’s vehicles. Both sued McNeely and Doe in December 2022 after they discovered the GPS units.
“John Doe has not shown that disclosure of his identity will reveal highly personal and sensitive information about him, or that disclosure will subject him to a significant risk of retaliatory physical or mental harm,” Discovery Commissioner Wesley Ayres wrote in late June. “His claims of harassment are unpersuasive, as are his arguments that disclosure of his identity will violate his First Amendment rights.”
Hardy agreed and ordered Doe’s identity to be revealed by Sept. 9. Doe, however, appealed on Sept. 6.
“John Doe thus had (and has) a well-founded interest in anonymously investigating possible malfeasance and getting that information out to the general public so they can make informed decisions about the people they elect to public office,” attorney Jeffrey Barr wrote on behalf of Doe. “Anonymous participation in political discourse is a venerable and important American tradition that predates even the ratification of the First Amendment.”
He further said he did not authorize the GPS tracking and was assured his identity would remain anonymous.
“When Doe hired the Investigator Defendants to investigate the allegations against Schieve and Hartung, Mr. McNeely assured him that his identity would remain confidential,” Barr wrote. “Absent this guarantee of confidentiality, John Doe would not have hired the Investigator Defendants.”
The Nevada Supreme Court already ruled in April that Doe’s identity “does not fall within the definition of a trade secret.”
