WAXAHACHIE -- Joey Dauben, former publisher of the Ellis County Observer, received five years probation on Nov. 15 in lieu of a one-year state jail sentence recommended by a jury after a one-day trial and conviction the previous day. Judge Bob Carroll of the 40th District Court ordered Dauben, 31, to serve five years probation, after the jury convicted him of "fraudulent use of private identifying information" in connection with a post on his blog in 2011. During the probation Dauben's Internet use will be restricted. He will not be allowed to maintain a Facebook page, he will be prohibited from posting comments of any kind on the Internet on public pages and he will be allowed only one e-mail account for work and other approved personal messaging to family and friends. He will be confined to Ellis County and must observe an 11 p.m. curfew. Earlier in the year Judge Carroll ordered Dauben to forfeit the website name EllisCountyObserver.com in connection with the felony charge pending against him. In convicting Dauben, the jury recommended a one-year-sentence and a $2,400 fine, but it also suggested the former publisher be allowed to avoid prison through community supervision as it was his first felony conviction. In the post that resulted in criminal charges in Ellis County, Dauben identified a Red Oak man by full legal name, date-of-birth and site of work whose ex-wife had accused her ex-husband of molesting their children. When Red Oak Police charged the woman with filing a false police report, Dauben issued a retraction and an apology. Subsequently,in June 2011, Red Oak Police in cooperation with the Henderson County Sheriff's Department raided Dauben's Cedar Creek Lake home office and seized his computer and files. Ellis County District Attorney Patrick Wilson reportedly told the jury that Dauben appeared to be acting in the capacity of a vigilante, rather than a journalist reporting the news. Wilson said that the information Dauben reported about the Red Oak man could have led to the destruction of his reputation and possible physical harm to him. Wilson said he had received complaints from people Dauben had written about in the past that they were terrified of him. Wilson asked for a longer sentence of five years and a stiffer fine of $5,000, but he reportedly also suggested the former publisher be given probation. In an interview prior to his trial, Dauben said that he realized he had exercised poor judgment in his post by failing to investigate the allegation. But he contended that it should have been a civil libel legal matter than criminal prosecution. Dauben, who was returned to jail because he will soon be transferred to Navarro County where he faces criminal prosecution on charges he engaged in sex with a 15-year-old male teenager on a church trip five years ago, was disappointed by the conviction but he and his support network of family and friends remain upbeat, according to his girlfriend Presley Renae Crowe. "Joey is confident, and he knows what he has got to do," Crowe said in a phone text. "He's ready to at least get all of this behind us, and get our life going so that maybe one day we can start a family. That idea and the thought of being with his family with no restriction is what is keeping him going." Because of the Navarro County charges his terms of release on bond prevented him from being in the presence of his sister's children. Dauben was awaiting trial free on $5,000 bond until Judge Carroll revoked his bond in Ellis County because he found in a hearing that the former publisher had violated the terms of his pre-trial release by engaging in "direct or indirect" Internet use. As a result of the developments in Ellis County his pre-trial release on $50,000 bond in Navarro County also ended. "I just hope we can get the dollars to get him out of Navarro County Jail before his trial there, but who knows how it will pan out," Crowe said. Dauben has declared his innocence in the charges he faces in Navarro County. He was arrested on those charges in late December 2011 and spent more than two months in jail before being released on bond. He has maintained that enemies he wrote about over the years who held grudges against him conspired to get him arrested on those charges. The Navarro County indictment preceded the Ellis County indictment, and Dauben maintained that a bitter enemy of his served on the Ellis County grand jury. He also claimed that Wilson was acting out of vengeance because of Dauben's previous reporting about politics, and that the district attorney was infuriated that he had published a list of the grand jurors' names in a hard copy of the Ellis County Observer he distributed. At the time of his indictment and arrest Dauben was living and working in Payne Springs where he had moved his operation to a relative's home. He had begun covering politics and government in the cities around the lake. The Navarro County trial was scheduled for last month, but a mistrial was declared because Judge James Lagomarsino of the 13th District Court declared a mistrial when prosecutors and defenders failed to agree on a sufficient number of acceptable jurors. It is not Dauben's first time to run afoul of the law and get arrested. Two years ago Dauben received a $10,000 settlement in connection with his false arrest in 2009 by Combine police officers in connection with his posting of a mug shot of a policeman. During Dauben's decade-long career as a journalist, which started with a job at a newspaper and evolved to self-publishing under the Ellis County Observer banner, he has made numerous enemies who have rejoiced at the news of his legal problems this year. His critics call him unfair, unprofessional and reckless, but some acknowledge he possesses natural talent for journalism.