Former Cop Tied to Data Dump Containing Locations of Coworkers, Battered Women

A former Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy, with a grudge against the police department, has been linked to the online posting of confidential information on his former colleagues.

The restricted home addresses of thousands of officers, prosecutors, judges, FBI agents and others appeared on a public website over the weekend. The listing also includes addresses of facilities that house domestic violence women.

How the information ended up online is a mystery.

The site that posted the information allegedly is tied to former deputy Mark Dougan, an outspoken enemy of Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his second-in-command, Chief Deputy Michael Gauger. In a civil suit filed in 2012, Gauger accused Dougan of defaming him.

Dougan said friends in Russia were responsible, and he knew “a long time ago” that hackers had the information.

Dougan said the release was retribution against the sheriff’s office, which he claimed had broken into his personal Facebook and email accounts without a warrant.

“It sucks, but if the government doesn’t want their privacy breached, then they can’t go around breaching the privacy of citizens without a warrant,” he said. “Yes, 4,000 people were not involved in hacking my stuff, but those 4,000 people didn’t do anything to stop it.”

The property appraiser’s director of exemption services, which handles requests by police officers to redact their home addresses, said no one had breached the office’s database.