Woman Jailed for Complaining About Her Cop Ex-Husband on Facebook—Taxpayers Held Liable
In yet another federal civil rights lawsuit, the American taxpayer is footing the bill for the unconscionable actions of a few uneducated and unscrupulous police officers. This time, a police officer decided to arrest his ex-wife for “criminal defamation” of character, for a Facebook post she made which he obviously didn’t like. There were no threats of violence and it merely implied that he was lazy.
In 2015, Anne King posted the following, completely legal post to her Facebook page: “That moment when everyone in your house has the flu and you ask your kid’s dad to get them (not me) more Motrin and Tylenol and he refuses.”
That is it.
Nevertheless, the officer still chose to arrest Anne King for criminal defamation despite the fact that it was ruled unconstitutional in Georgia over 30 years ago. Worse yet, court papers reveal an earlier accusation that Officer Corey King used his badge to coerce his ex-wife into having post-divorce sex with him in order to keep her out of jail.
The lawsuit was filed on the 19th of January, 2017. Anne King sued her ex-husband, Officer Corey King and fellow officer and investigator Trey Burgamy for violating her first and fourth amendment rights to free speech and unreasonable search, seizure, and arrest, as well as malicious prosecution, false arrest, and civil conspiracy. She sued both men, who are Washington County, Georgia police officers, for an unspecified amount of money.
After years of battling the system, the lawsuit was finally settled last week and Anne King received $100,000 and, amazingly enough, an apology.
The apology, which she posted on Facebook, reads: “We apologize for the pain caused and time wasted including Ms. King being charged and arrested with respect to what was really a personal dispute that should have ended without the involvement of the courts.”
“There were plenty of times I thought to myself I should just end this,” she told the Journal-Constitution. “But I wasn’t going to back down and let them win.”
Lawyers for Ms. King allege the county has a history of jailing people for defamation of character. “Although criminal defamation has been unconstitutional in Georgia for decades, County law enforcement, on information and belief, regularly arrest and charge people with criminal defamation,” the suit read.
Story continued in link....
In yet another federal civil rights lawsuit, the American taxpayer is footing the bill for the unconscionable actions of a few uneducated and unscrupulous police officers. This time, a police officer decided to arrest his ex-wife for “criminal defamation” of character, for a Facebook post she made which he obviously didn’t like. There were no threats of violence and it merely implied that he was lazy.
In 2015, Anne King posted the following, completely legal post to her Facebook page: “That moment when everyone in your house has the flu and you ask your kid’s dad to get them (not me) more Motrin and Tylenol and he refuses.”
That is it.
Nevertheless, the officer still chose to arrest Anne King for criminal defamation despite the fact that it was ruled unconstitutional in Georgia over 30 years ago. Worse yet, court papers reveal an earlier accusation that Officer Corey King used his badge to coerce his ex-wife into having post-divorce sex with him in order to keep her out of jail.
The lawsuit was filed on the 19th of January, 2017. Anne King sued her ex-husband, Officer Corey King and fellow officer and investigator Trey Burgamy for violating her first and fourth amendment rights to free speech and unreasonable search, seizure, and arrest, as well as malicious prosecution, false arrest, and civil conspiracy. She sued both men, who are Washington County, Georgia police officers, for an unspecified amount of money.
After years of battling the system, the lawsuit was finally settled last week and Anne King received $100,000 and, amazingly enough, an apology.
The apology, which she posted on Facebook, reads: “We apologize for the pain caused and time wasted including Ms. King being charged and arrested with respect to what was really a personal dispute that should have ended without the involvement of the courts.”
“There were plenty of times I thought to myself I should just end this,” she told the Journal-Constitution. “But I wasn’t going to back down and let them win.”
Lawyers for Ms. King allege the county has a history of jailing people for defamation of character. “Although criminal defamation has been unconstitutional in Georgia for decades, County law enforcement, on information and belief, regularly arrest and charge people with criminal defamation,” the suit read.
Story continued in link....
