Jack Seiler is having it out with Chaz Stevens after the mayor found the blogger in his law firm's
parking lot Sunday morning. Seiler chased Stevens off his property and said he called the cops to investigate, starting an exchange of heated words today from both of them.
It began last week, when we published this item about anonymous comments being left on local blogs promoting Broward County Judge John "Jay" Hurley. The comments traced back to a law office where Hurley's campaign manager, Ed McGee, works.
When asked if anyone else in the building has an interest in promoting the judge, McGee mentioned that Seiler also works there. Seiler, when asked about it, denied he had anything to do it it, doubted anyone else in the building did, and suggested that someone
perhaps gained access to the firm's servers.
So that's why
Stevens says he first went to Seiler's office about 2 p.m. Friday to
see if the firm had an unsecured wifi that would allow someone access.
Stevens then posted this item to his blog, claiming that he could find no wifi signal.
Seiler
says he thinks Stevens may have done something dastardly when he was in
the parking lot on Friday. When Seiler got back to the office late in
the day, he discovered that his server had crashed about 2 p.m. and that the
firm had lost some information on its computers.
"I don't know
what he was doing on our property, but I find it a little suspicious
that he was there messing around with our internet and then the whole
system goes down," Seiler said.
Stevens denies he had anything
to do with the crash. An IT guy by trade, Stevens says that would ruin
his career. "It would be the death of me professionally if I were
caught hacking into someone's computer."
Things got even more
complicated Sunday. That's when Seiler says he went to do a little
work at his law office on Andrews Avenue in Wilton Manors. A few
minutes later, he heard a car pull into the parking lot. Seiler went
outside to find Stevens sitting on the hood of his car with a laptop.
Stevens
says he was searching again unsuccessfully for a wifi signal to help
disprove the mayor's theory that somebody could've hacked into the law
office's server.
Seiler approached and told Stevens that the parking lot was private property and that he'd have to leave.
"Sorry about that," Stevens says he told the mayor. "Didn't see any signs."
Seiler
says that after he approached him, Stevens ran "like a little mouse."
Seiler went back inside to call the Wilton Manors Police Department.
Stevens
drove across the street, then found a park bench on the road outside
the law office to continue his unsuccessful search for an internet
access point.
"Not my problem. I didn't do anything illegal,"
Stevens says of the altercation. "My quote? You want a quote from me?
Only one letter separates stalking from talking."
Afterward, Stevens filed this item to his blog.
Seiler
was irate about finding Stevens in his parking lot. "This has got to
stop. This story has nothing to do with me. I've said it before: I'm
happy to take a lie detector test to say that I've got nothing to do
with Judge Hurley or his election."
