But in a case where even the tight-knit city's police chief has "begged" witnesses to come forward, the group's anonymity has led to a flood of leaks — "well over 1,000" so far from in and around the city of 18,000, and between 50-100 more coming in each day. So far information on the case that was first published by LocaLeaks includes a detailed account of the alleged rape itself, as well as character profiles and damaging videos. The editor described the LocalLeaks workflow as "a bit chaotic and a work in progress at this point," and admitted that "we are actually having a difficult time even storing the leaks electronically." If storing the information is a problem, what about trying to confirm the tips? This is how the LocalLeaks editor described their verification process:

This gigantic volume of material has caused us literally have to invent an analysis process on the fly. We set as our initial goal in the disclosure to identify the key people and places involved in the story, and use that as an initial framework for the disclosure. To do that, we literally used the wall of our office space, printing out and hanging material on the wall and using colored string to make connections. Sounds messy I know, but for our initial analysis it worked we were able to see the basic outlines of the story and do a global release. Eventually we plan on trying to find some sort of software and projection technology to accomplish the same thing, but right now if we had to do it again we would probably just use the wall!

The editor added that his team was handling documents and photographs with "a sort of forensic analysis that we as hackers are pretty comfortable performing," but that so-called "testimonial leaks" were verified with multiple sources — and LocalLeaks has more sources every day. LocalLeaks's editor said that "For a particular fact to be determined to be true, it requires that enough material be leaked on it for us to be able to say with relative assurance that it is true."

The editor says he does not "spend a lot of time worrying about what the consequences of that revelation will be." But his lawyer does. "Oh my gosh, does this make me nervous," attorney Jay Leiderman told The Atlantic Wire in a phone interview. "This is a new frontier that we're seeing here — we've seen what happened with WikiLeaks." Leiderman added that LocalLeaks has informed him they are actually "holding back on some stuff until they verify it one way or another. The crew is working 24/7 to get things right." LocalLeaks has entered the uncharted waters while handling tips that involve minors accused of major crimes and even more information that group has yet to reveal as its fact-checkers gather more "evidence" for verification.

'No One Say Anything, No One Talks to Anybody'

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla has publicly accused LocalLeaks and its informal partnership with Anonymous of interfering with official police investigations, including the release of information about the suspects, who are being tried as minors. (Attorneys for the suspects have not responded to requests by The Atlantic Wire for comment on how the leaks have affected their case, and the sheriff's office did not immediately respond to request for comment for this story.) Abdalla said he was "coming after" Anonymous in an interview Friday night, then appeared at an Occupy Steubenville rally organized by the hackers on Saturday afternoon.