Sapientia privacy-law attorney Kenn Fukuda was recently quoted in a St. Paul Pioneer Press story about the firm’s representation of a client who had her private, personal drivers’ license information accessed by law enforcement more than any other reported case in Minnesota.  As reported in the Pioneer Press:

“Cops were checking her out – 700 times”

Marino Eccher and Mary Divine

April 10, 2013

Brooke Bass spent her legal career looking out for the best interests of police officers.

They were looking out for her, too, her lawyer says — but in a different way.

In the past eight years, more than 100 entities across Minnesota — nearly all of them law enforcement — accessed Bass’s private driver’s license information more than 700 times, her attorney said.

That would make her the subject of the biggest privacy breach to date in the state’s increasingly broad and increasingly expensive license-data debacle.

Bass, who spent six years as a lawyer with Law Enforcement Labor Services, the state’s largest police union, was shocked when she learned this year that law enforcement agencies had pulled her information so many times, said Kenn Fukuda, her lawyer.

He said the volume and scope of the inquiries, which can include information such as a driver’s license photo, home address and physical description, suggest they went far beyond legitimate purposes.

“We don’t think there should be any reason why over 100 entities are looking her up,” Fukuda said.

Bass, now executive director of human resources for Rochester Public Schools, has yet to sue over the alleged breaches. But Fukuda and Sapentia Law Group have written to several agencies detailing her intent to seek damages. Federal law allows her to seek minimum damages of $2,500 per occurrence, plus attorney’s fees.