If you’re curious to see who’s appearing in court in this province each day, turns out the Newfoundland and Labrador justice department’s website is not the only way to find out.
Plentyofskeets.com directs you to the provincial court dockets.
The domain name — which plays on the name of the popular dating website Plenty of Fish — is the brain child of Mike Barrington of St. John’s, an amateur comedian, who wanted to make people laugh.
“It’s just for the smirk it puts on someone’s face,” the 36-year-old said. “I’ve got nothing against anybody. It’s just a joke.”
Barrington got the idea to create the website just over three years ago, when a local crime made the news. It involved a woman who had met a man on the Plenty of Fish dating website. According to information released on the case, when she arrived to meet the man in person, two other men jumped out of the bushes and robbed them. Shortly after, a Cape Shore meme surfaced on social media about the incident, showing photos of the men alongside the words, ‘Plenty of Skeets.’
“When I saw that, I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s hilarious,’” Barrington said. “It just clicked in my head.
“It’s the best 20 bucks a year I’ve spent.”
He said nobody has contacted him to object to it. In fact, he said he’s gotten nothing but positive feedback.
“It’s been really cool. I have had people come up to me and be like, ‘Oh, you’re Mike Barrington. I can’t tell you who I am or where I work, but thank you so much. We get such a kick out of it.’ One guy said to me, ‘I work in IT and you’re a legend.’ I have a couple of friends who are lawyers and apparently, it’s the little joke between them in the office and any time they need to look at the court docket, they use plentyofskeets.com to get there.”
He’s gotten plenty of traffic to the site. According to the GoDaddy Internet domain registrar and web hosting company, the projected value of the site is in the thousands of dollars, he said.
Barrington said friends have suggested he set up ads on the site, but he decided against it.
“I figured it would cause more issues than anything,” he said. “Right now, it’s just a simple forward to the website of the court docket and I figured if I complicated that, someone would probably have a problem with it.”
Barrington, who’s performed his comedy acts at Yuk-Yuks and various downtown bars, said all he gets out of it is the satisfaction of making someone laugh.
“There’s absolutely no ill-will or hate. It’s legitimately just to put a smile on someone’s face,” he said. “That makes my day.”
As for the word ‘skeet,” Barrington said, “I think there’s a love-hate with skeet. It’s much like the word Newfie. Yes, it’s describing a certain type of people or person, but it’s not done with hate in mind. It’s just us being silly. For me, it’s always just used in good fun.”
But the justice department isn’t laughing.
Justice Minister Andrew Parsons said he wasn’t aware of the site, but would like the plentyofskeets.com link removed.
“It’s a cheap attempt at a laugh. This (provincial court) site is online and it’s there for a valid purpose …,” he said. “It’s really too bad that (someone has) to find some pleasure in this.”
Parsons would not comment on the term “skeet,” but pointed out that people listed on the provincial court docket are real people who are presumed innocent.
“I’ve represented enough people and I’ve known enough people who have had the very sad and difficult situation of having their names listed on dockets and it’s tough. It’s embarrassing. You know people have access to it and see it …,” he said.
“There are very few in our province who don’t know or may be related to someone who’s gone through situation within the provincial court criminal realm. For every person convicted, there are many who are innocent, acquitted and ultimately vindicated.”
Parsons said he’s had the Office of the Chief Information Officer look into it and said the issue is technical — while the link is registered to a Newfoundland and Labrador resident, the host server is in the United States. However, he said they will continue to see what actions can be taken to remove the plentyofskeets.com link for good.
Twitter: @TelyRosie
