Aide to Congressman Fired after Correspondence with Convicted Killer

The Associated Press reports that US Representative Rodney Alexander learned of Theresa Mares’ letters from a National Enquirer reporter. The National Enquirer reported in August that Mares sent at least 18 letters to Peterson, who was convicted in 2004 of killing his wife and unborn child, declaring her love for him.

A spokesman said Alexander decided to fire Mares because she was “using government resources to personally communicate with Scott Peterson,” according to the AP. “Ms. Mares’ actions have been embarrassing to our office and demonstrate that her views are politically incompatible with those of the congressman,” spokesman Adam Terry said.

While perhaps an extreme example of the trend, employers have been recently tightening policies on employees’ personal use of workplace resources – especially computers (See Employers Tightening Controls on Employees’ At-Work Computer Use ). In February, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a city employee fired for playing Solitaire on a work computer (See Bloomberg to Workplace Solitaire Players: Quit It ).