Jim Leary is the owner of FlashPosse, a website dedicated to corrective social action that was implicated in the killing of Sid Maxwell.
Background[]
Jim Leary was the creator and owner of FlashPosse, a "human flesh search engine" that allowed users to post photos of people committing social wrongs such as leaving dog crap on the sidewalk. Leary and other users would then use all available online resources to identify the person in the photo and post their contact details on the site so other users could harass them. A woman in China who had filmed herself killing a cat was doxxed by FlashPosse when they identified a building in the video and where the shoe she was wearing came from, and she eventually lost her job and went into hiding. Leary also went after a woman named Rebecca Davies whose husband committed suicide after she had an affair, leading to Davies being harassed, and when asked to take it down told her that he was providing a public service by allowing the public to decide what was right and wrong.
In 2008, Leary witnessed a FlashPosse user named Kerry Sands attacking a cab driver who she accused of murdering her daughter. He learned that Kerry was criminally insane and had hallucinated her daughter being killed by a taxi, causing her to develop a homicidal hatred of both taxi driver and people who texted while driving, believing them to be servants of the Devil.
Leary set up a password-protected area on FlashPosse for people who had a special interest in Sid Maxwell, a photographer who was pictured texting while driving on the site. The protected area of the site was where users posted the most confidential information they could find about Maxwell. Leary sent personal emails to Kerry whenever new information was posted, such as Freddy Keegan admitting that he had hacked into and manipulated the security cameras at Maxwell's apartment building and Andrew Mason sharing Maxwell's front door code.
Human Flesh Search Engine[]
Kerry Sands eventually breaks into Maxwell's apartment using the information on FlashPosse and strangles him to death. Lupo and Bernard visit Leary and ask for the identities of the FlashPosse users who threatened Maxwell, but Leary refuses to reveal them without a subpoena. He later hacks Bernard's unlisted phone number and posts it on the site so the users can go after him for trying to stop them. This however allows the police to trace the users without a subpoena while they were posting.
When Kerry is arrested and discovered to have used FlashPosse to commit the murder, Leary's home is searched and all the FlashPosse servers are seized. Leary is outraged and threatens to call his lawyer. Bernard argues with Leary and asks him if he knows Kerry Sands, and Leary admits that he does and he is aware of her delusions. Later, Leary and all the other users who threatened Maxwell are indicted by Michael Cutter for second-degree murder. Judge Arlene Jones forces Cutter to drop the charges against all defendants except for Leary and two others.
At the trial, Bernard testifies that Leary knew Kerry was delusional, but Leary's attorney accuses him of lying to get revenge on Leary for harassing him and exposes that he has an illegitimate son with a woman named Rosemary Franklin who he failed to pay maintenance for. Leary later testifies that Sid Maxwell deserved to be exposed, but he never thought that anyone would physically harm him. He tells Cutter that he allowed Maxwell's address to be posted "in case somebody wanted to write him a letter". Cutter then exposes that Leary had witnessed one of Kerry's insane outbursts during which she physically attacked a cab driver and accused him of being the spawn of Satan. Leary is unable to answer, and later pleads guilty to manslaughter for a reduced sentence. (L&O: "Human Flesh Search Engine")