Some Words on the Shuler Case

This is the latest post in what I half-jokingly call The Kimberlin Saga^®.  If you are new to the story, that’s okay! Not everyone reads my blog.  The short version is that Kimberlin has been harassing me for over a year, his worst conduct being when he attempted to frame me for a crime.   I recognize that this might sound like an incredible claim, but I provide video and documentary evidence of that fact; in other words, you don’t have to believe my word.  You only have to believe your eyes.  So, if you are new to the story, go to this page and you’ll be able to catch up on what has been happening.

So this is further coverage of the Shuler case, which has fascinated me in various ways.  One of the real shortcomings on the liberal side of things is the complete failure to incorporate the views of anyone but Roger Shuler.  Bill Schmalfeldt, for instance, claims that he has an ethical duty as a journalist to contact subjects of his reportage for contact, but he has evidently made no effort to seek out the views of Rob Riley, Liberty Duke, Jessica Garrison, Attorney General Luther Strange, Judge William Pryor or the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

Sidebar: Schmalfeldt’s claim that he contacts people in order to get their official comment is also belied by the fact that he regularly insults those persons, and when he is publicly shown to be flat out wrong on a fact, Schmalfeldt refuses to issue a correction.  But more on that later.

So, for the last few days I have been contacting people connected to all of the above and doing other research on Roger Shuler.  You can see where I wrote about order under which he was arrested, here, about Shuler’s status as a crank, here, and his possible unauthorized practice of law, here. There are, of course, two tracks that are keeping my interest: the (in my mind) unlawful detention of Roger Shuler, and the awful reporting of Bill Schmalfeldt.  Let’s start with the Shuler stuff and my own reporting.

Word From the Sheriff’s Office

On Tuesday, I spoke with a source at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.  I won’t share his name because Shuler is an extremely litigious man who sometimes mistakes attempts to help him as evidence of a conspiracy, but he explained the following.  First, as you know, Shuler is being charged with contempt and resisting arrest.  Contrary to some claims, there was a facially valid warrant for his arrest based on the judge’s order that he be arrested for contempt.  As it stands now, he has a $1,000 bond set for the resisting arrest.  Reportedly he hasn’t paid it and most likely that is because there is no point in paying it, because no bail has been set for the contempt of court charge.  In other words even if he paid the $1,000, they wouldn’t free him because of the contempt.  So in those circumstances I wouldn’t pay the $1,000: I’d save it for an attorney.  Of course it is an open question whether Shuler will hire an attorney and whether any attorney will be willing to represent him given reports that he tends to sue his own attorneys, claiming they are conspiring against him (see my prior post talking about his paranoia).

I asked that same source about the arrest.  This person didn’t speak in any detail about it, but he did say that the arresting officer showed “an extreme amount of discretion,” and that this source based his opinion on both video and audio evidence.  The rumors I heard (that I have not yet verified) about how the arrest went down would suggest that there would probably be some video of the arrest, but it wouldn’t have captured every moment in it.  That lines up with those rumors but not enough to make me feel reasonably certain they were true.  Since this spokesperson did not elaborate on what happened, one cannot independently verify whether the deputy actually did use “an extreme amount of discretion.”  You can take his word for it, or not and given his anonymity you might not.  Myself, I would rather just see and hear the video and audio.

He would not comment on the physical or mental health of Shuler (I asked about the swelling you can see in his eye in the mugshot pictured right).  But he did indicate that they do take care of you physically and mentally in appropriate ways.

Word from Garrison’s Attorney

Just yesterday, I also heard from William Baxley, who is representing Jessica Garrison in a separate case from the one where Shuler has been arrested for contempt of court.  Here is what he told me.

First, the basic claim at issue is that Garrison had an affair with current Alabama Attorney General, Luther Strange.  I also saw posts insinuating that Strange was the father of Garrison’s son, although it didn’t say it outright.

As for Baxley, he is a Democrat.  In fact, researching for this post, I realized he was kind of a heroic figure.  For instance, I have told you several times about the terrorist bombing of the 16^th St. Baptist Church, in Birmingham, in which four little girls were murdered while attending Sunday school.  I only note that the girls were black because the obvious motivation for the crime was racism.  Mr. Baxley was the Attorney General of Alabama who successfully prosecuted Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss for their murders.  He is also famous for getting a death threat from the head of the KKK and responding—on official Attorney General of Alabama letterhead—“My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is – kiss my ass.”  I had first heard of that letter years ago in undergraduate school, but frankly didn’t remember his name until a little googling reminded me.  That is unfortunate, because if I knew who he was ahead of time, I might have also asked him how he could walk around with cojones that big.  Seriously, he told the head of a racist, terrorist organization off.

Here’s a video from a documentary on the Klan, discussing him and that famous letter (contrary to reports, he was responding to an out-and-out threat):

All of which doesn’t mean his client’s necessarily right, but did I mention I am a bit of a history geek?  So I am geeking out right now that I talked to him.  Sue me.

The significant fact for you to take away from this is that he identifies himself today as a Democrat and has been one since at least the 1970’s (he was Attorney General in 1970).  He said he didn’t agree with ex-governor Robert Riley Sr. (the father of the Rob Riley Jr. suing in the other case), or with Attorney General Strange on much of anything.  So the idea that this is part of some kind of Karl-Rove-led Republican conspiracy just doesn’t hold water.

What Baxley did, in his interview with me, is more or less play witness for the plaintiff.  Of course he can’t testify in trial, but he clearly was playing that role in the court of public opinion.  He told me how when Garrison came into his office, he assumed that there must be some grain of truth to the allegations.  People commonly assume that there aren’t people out there who just make stuff up, and truly pathological liars take advantage of that assumption.  But after a while Baxley concluded that there was literally no truth whatsoever to Shuler’s claims.  Baxley grilled her, he told me, he told her all the reasons why one shouldn’t sue for defamation, he pointed out that it would be hard to get any money from Shuler (especially since he doesn’t own any interest in the house he is living in).

And in relation to Shuler’s insinuation that Strange fathered Garrison’s son, Baxley told me that he advised her that she and her son would have to be subjected to a DNA test and she said she was prepared for that.  He also said that the father of her son was her ex-husband, and that this ex-husband wrote to Shuler and told him that the kid was definitely his.  This attorney reported that the child has apparently suffered in some unnamed way due to this man’s rumor mongering.

I also asked him about service on Shuler and what happened there.  His is what he said happened.  He said he sent an experienced process server who waited him out for several days.  They knew the Shulers were in there, they could see the lights on, they could even see them in the windows sometimes, but they wouldn’t answer the door.  I interjected that in Virginia you can just tape it to the door and that is good enough, and he told me Alabama doesn’t make it that easy.  So then this process server was relieved by another one who decided to pull a trick on them.  He first made a big show of knocking on their door, and then made a big show of leaving.  Then he parked the car nearby and snuck close to the house.  Sure enough, Roger came out of his garage and the server ran up to him.  Shuler realized what was happening and tried to pull down his garage door but the server managed to slide it under the door before he closed it and shouted “you have been served!”

At least that is Baxley’s account of it.  If you read Shuler’s motion to quash service, he tells a version that lines up with much of that, only the service didn’t quite make it in.  Which begs the question: did Shuler just leave it lying on his driveway?  He didn’t, you know, pick it up at some point?

Seriously, I always tell my clients, “don’t schmuck around with service.  Just accept it and deal with the rest of the suit.”  Shuler’s failure to follow that course is exactly why he is in jail today.

Baxley was also kind enough to share the complaint but in all bluntness it is very pro-forma.  There isn’t very much more than a recitation of specific statements made that Garrison considers defamatory.  Some of them were made in the main posts of the blog, and thus were presumably by Roger Shuler.  These include allegations of an affair, presented in a conclusory fashion with no mention of any specific dates, times, location of rendezvous, etc.  You are not given any information about who is saying it, what motivations (besides truth) they might have, how they know this occurred, what exactly they saw, etc.  It is frankly so vague it leaves you wondering if he has any sources at all.

My source from the other day told me that he believes that in these defamation cases, Shuler thinks he can keep his sources anonymous.  I responded, “well, he might be allowed to keep they anonymous, depending on how Alabama’s press shield law reads, but if all of his sources are anonymous and he doesn’t get any of them to testify on his behalf, he is going to have no evidence and he is going to lose his case.”  I mean barring any surprising turn of events, in both this case and the Riley case, I expect that the men and women will swear up and down nothing went on.  And then Shuler gets up on the stand and says, “Well, my sources, told me...” and before he would finish his thought, the lawyers would object on the basis of hearsay.  There are exceptions to the hearsay rule but it would be impossible to even hope to apply them without identifying the ultimate source of the statement.  So they would have some evidence, whether you find it credible or not, that they did not have an affair, and Shuler would have no evidence that they did and he would appropriately lose on a motion for summary judgment.

Another claim Shuler makes is that Jessica Garrison got some kind of pay out, which he insinuates is hush money.  Again, he doesn’t seem to have very much in support, although at least this time he seems to be specific to the amount.  Interestingly, although Shuler insinuates that Strange is the father here, that isn’t part of the suit, possibly because the claim was not clear and definite enough.  In addition to that, unknown commenters are being sued for writing similar things.  The worst among those comments is this one:

I can see Jessica using her powerful female parts to share with these boys just to get to the top in Alabama and the Republican party. Strange should be indicted for his financial arrangements with Garrision [sic] but who would do it?

Sounds like Jessica is rising to the top by laying on her back!!!

These commenters are anonymous, so I expect the process to involve identifying them.

Before I saw the complaint I asked Baxley if he considered injunctive relief and he said he didn’t for First Amendment concerns and because it is simply hard to obtain them.  Later in the conversation, he did say he might consider an injunction requiring certain content to be taken down after the fact if they prevail, which you know before I considered the least offensive form of injunctive relief in a case like this.

A Word From Rob Riley

I have put out inquiries to attorneys representing Riley and Liberty Duke.  The one representing Duke felt she could not talk to me because of the seal on the case.  Riley’s attorney hasn’t responded at all, although it might be for the same reason.

But we do get a tantalizing look into Riley’s side of the story in an “interview” Shuler conducted.  This interview constitutes him calling up Riley over and over again (there are multiple parts to it, all on youtube, but I focusing on just one part), his conduct bordering on harassment.  Still, despite all of that, there is an interesting tidbit in one “interview” Shuler conducted.  As you remember, Shuler accused Rob Riley Jr. of having an affair with Liberty Duke, of conceiving a child with her, and of him paying (or getting someone else to pay) to procure an abortion (which she got).  You know, because she couldn’t just have a baby and then give it away for adoption if she didn’t want to keep it.

Well, in this interview, at about the 1:30 mark, Riley claims that medical records say he couldn’t have fathered any child:

He doesn’t give him medical records because he feels it is private.  Well, he can’t keep that completely private from Shuler and hope to win his case for defamation.  But if he had a vasectomy or (flinch) some horrible accident or medical problem preventing him from fathering children that would seem to be a pretty heavy slam dunk.  Obviously, in that case, Shuler’s alleged sources would be wrong, and if they were wrong on that, they were likely to be wrong about the whole thing.

Also I will note that Riley could not have ethically shared with Shuler all of his emails.  Riley is a lawyer.  Many of his emails are surely privileged.  And of course if Riley offered to share some of his emails, but not let Shuler have free reign in his account, then Shuler would just accuse him of not sharing everything.  Or deleting them.  Or whatever.

A Word From Shuler’s Wife

I have generally kept the name of Shuler’s wife out of this, but here you can see that she apparently consented to be videoed describing how her husband was arrested.  I will note that the entirety of this story appears to be hearsay—that is, her representation of what her husband said.  Mrs. Shuler has stated repeatedly that she did not witness the arrest and indeed indicates that, in the video below.

But like I said, a Sheriff’s spokesperson said that there was some video and audio of the incident.  That is what I would like to see, rather than Roger Shuler’s account of it (through his wife) or the sheriff's spokesman’s conclusory defense.  But for what it is worth:

A Word from @RogerShuler

Of course @rogershuler is Shuler’s twitter account and apparently someone is tweeting from it, but it is clearly not Shuler himself.  Instead it appears that someone hacked the account and turned it into a spambot, tweeting out messages like “Shed INCHES FAST! lose massive body fat with the same diet celeberties [sic] use!” and linking to some marketing site.  I’d embed some of the tweets, but I am worried that it will get my site flagged in browsers.  I don’t know if the hacking was random or some vile person decided to take advantage of his incarceration, but if it is the latter case, that is pretty low.

You know, because there was not enough oddity in this case.

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My wife and I have lost our jobs due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up to ten years.  I know that claim sounds fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these claims using documentary and video evidence.  If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin accountable, please hit the donation link on the right.  And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.  And you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent History here.  And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

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Disclaimer:

I have accused some people, particularly Brett Kimberlin, of reprehensible conduct.  In some cases, the conduct is even criminal.  In all cases, the only justice I want is through the appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system.  I do not want to see vigilante violence against any person or any threat of such violence.  This kind of conduct is not only morally wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him.  Do not call him.  Do not write him a letter.  Do not write him an email.  Do not text-message him.  Do not engage in any kind of directed communication.  I say this in part because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on his property.  Don’t sneak around and try to photograph him.  Frankly try not to even be within his field of vision.  Your behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his organizations, either.  And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report.  And even then if he tells you to stop contacting him, obey that request.  That this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something else.  In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above.  But if any of you have, stop it, and if you haven’t don’t start.