The Plain Dealer in Cleveland named an anonymous poster who had placed comments on its Web site after it was revealed she was the daughter of a local judge and had posted comments related to her mother's cases.

“Until this week, 'lawmiss' was known only as one of thousands who, often known only by nicknames, share views on news blogs and stories reported at cleveland.com.," the Plain Dealer reported. “But after investigating a comment directed at the relative of a Plain Dealer reporter, editors learned that lawmiss had the same e-mail address as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold. A closer look revealed that the user had offered opinions on three of Saffold's cases, including the capital murder trial of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell."

That is when it turned out the poster was the judge's daughter, who had been using her mother's e-mail identity.

“When confronted with the newspaper's findings Wednesday, the judge denied responsibility for the posts,” the paper added. “Her daughter, Sydney Saffold, came forward later to accept responsibility for posting 'quite a few, more than five' of more than 80 lawmiss comments.”

The issue has drawn reaction from those who believe it is an invasion of privacy as well as those who say the secrecy was not fair to the public, who needed to know what was happening.