Stephanie Porter-Nichols reports:
A Smyth County grand jury indicted a 40-year-old Chilhowie woman Wednesday for distributing the names, salaries and Social Security numbers of hundreds of General Dynamics’ employees in the midst of a strike last spring.
In Smyth County Circuit Court, the felony indictment was handed down for Melissa H. Trail. The indictment charged that on April 16, Trail did “fraudulently obtain identifying information with intent to distribute the information, relating to 50 or more persons.”
Virginia State Police Sgt. Michael Conroy said the personnel information of hundreds of employees was compromised. The identifying information was printed and posted on strike shacks around General Dynamics Armaments and Technical Products’ plants on Johnston Road and Brunswick Lane during a strike that lasted nine weeks.
Update of 1-22-10: See follow-up here. Not only were charges against her dropped, but she sued the paper for allegedly reporting the indictment inaccurately.