When the word ‘freelance’ is heard brushing up against the wrong side of the law it is typically about disputes over copyright, contracts or codes of conduct.
But goings-on this week in the US saw freelance work – and workers - at the centre of much shadier cases - one was criminal, and another had potentially fatal consequences.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles police told reporters that they arrested a man who was seen loitering outside the house of Brad Pitt who said he was there as a freelance reporter.
A housekeeper reportedly called police at midday after she spotted a car blocking the driveway to the actor’s home, which he shares with his partner Angelina Jolie.
Officer Karen Smith of the LA police told AP that a 25-year-old, claiming to be a freelance press worker, was arrested for investigation of trespassing and taken into custody.
Neither Pitt nor Jolie was home at the time and it will apparently be up to the housekeeper, not the Hollywood couple, to decide whether to press charges.
Journey up to California and ‘freelance’ was making headlines again – in another criminal case but this time one which could land the ‘perp’, as criminal parlance goes, a severe sentence.
According to details of an affidavit filed in Sacramento federal court yesterday, a woman who used Craigslist headed up a jobs ad ‘Freelance’ to find someone to kill her lover’s wife.
Details of the suit, obtained by a local newspaper, reveal three people responded – one thought it was a work-from-home opportunity, another expected a chance at freelance writing.
On emailing the author of the ambiguous ad, one was told, in keeping with freelance work, that all expenses would be paid and that completion of the job would payout $5,000.
Then came the particulars: “silent assassins” were needed to “eradicate” a 56-year-old female resident of Oroville named Carol, says the affidavit, seen by the Sacramento Bee.
Apparently Carol was not liked by Marie, author of the ad, because they were sharing a man.
Carol’s husband reportedly said he met Marie four years ago and together they began a “deep and intimate online relationship.”
Adding to the twist Marie is also married, but fortunately for all the parties involved, other than first names, they remain anonymous.
The government is expected to oppose bail, and will ask that Marie be transported by the US Marshals Service to Sacramento to face the charge of a cyberspace murder-for-hire plot.
Feb 1, 2008
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