The LISNews blog has an interesting article about a man who won a wrongful arrest lawsuit against the city of New York. The arrest resulted after his boss claimed she got a lewd email from him. Here’s more:

“The city has agreed to a $25,000 payout for an ex-librarian at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx who was busted last year for sending bizarre e-mails to his boss. The city agreed to settle Billy Hallowell’s wrongful arrest lawsuit rather than go to trial. Hallowell was detained for 30 hours in April last year after cops were told Hallowell had sent a lewd e-mail to his former boss.”

“We could do it in the library,” the e-mail said. “I could spank you with a vintage copy of Finigan’s (sic) wake.”

But Hallowell never sent the e-mail. The mixup occurred when librarian Robin Berson responded to an e-mail from Hallowell, who informed her he was quitting, asking him to return a library key. Berson sent the reply to an e-mail address that was nearly identical to Hallowell’s. The person who inadvertently received the e-mail sent it back with the bizarre note.

Hallowell sued and won. The lesson here? Double check that address before you hit send, and if you get an email meant for someone else, do them a favor and just delete it!