Woman accused in spam case flees state

A rural West Tennessee woman who is one of hundreds of people sued in February by some of the nation's largest Internet providers under the new federal anti-spam law has fled the state.

Debbie Cawdrey, who until early March resided on a 27-acre horse farm north of the small Gibson County town of Medina, is accused of sending millions of unwanted e-mails in violation of the new federal law against spam.

A Gibson County deputy on March 8 attempted to serve a warrant to Cawdrey, but a person renting the residence said Cawdrey had left for Las Vegas.

The warrant was from Earthlink Inc., the Atlanta-based Internet service provider, for using the firm's services to e-mail the unwanted pitches for prescription drugs, herbal potions, weight loss plans and other products.

Earthlink communications director Carla Shaw declined to comment specifically on the Cawdrey case.

The legal actions by Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc.'s America Online Inc., EarthLink Inc. and Yahoo Inc., represent the first major industry actions under the Can Spam legislation that went into effect Jan. 1. The lawsuits, filed in federal courts in California, Georgia, Virginia and Washington state, were announced at a news conference on Feb. 26..

The companies said the defendants include some of the nation's most notorious large-scale spammers. The Internet providers - collectively with tens of millions of subscribers - said they shared information, resources and investigative information to identify some of the defendants.

Dozens of those named in the lawsuits, however, were identified only as "John Doe" defendants who were accused of e-mailing unwanted offers.

According to property records from the Gibson County Register of Deeds Office, Cawdrey purchased a house, horse barn and 27 acres for $435,000 in September 2001.

On Feb. 27 - the day after the press conference announcing the lawsuits - Cawdrey transferred the property into Cawpo Limited Family Partnership. The registered agent for the concern is Todd J. McMillan, who is CEO Nevada Registrations.

McMillan's firm on its website boasts the partnership "can become the very foundation of every asset protection plan" that can "successfully be used to shield and protect all of your valuable property from virtually any type of judgment or claim. [It] is essential for asset protection is that the Nevada laws provide that a creditor of a partner may not reach the assets of a partnership in order to satisfy a debt."

The lawsuit also named Andy Pope, with an address noted as either Tennessee or Nevada.

A check with the Nevada Secretary of State's Office and the spamhaus.org anti-spam website notes Andy Pope as the "Las Vegas king of spam" and shares a street address in Henderson, Nev. once listed as Cawdrey's address.