National Roundup

Georgia
Woman charged after gripe about ex on Facebook gets justice
TENNILLE, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia woman who was criminally charged after complaining about her ex-husband on Facebook said she feels like she’s finally gotten justice.

Anne King posted in 2015: “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.”

She removed the post after her ex-husband, Corey King, complained, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But he’s a Washington County sheriff’s deputy and felt so “disrespected,” according to court documents, that he got a colleague, Capt. Trey Burgamy, to swear an affidavit for his ex-wife’s arrest.

A few days after the post, Anne King found herself in front of judge, facing a charge of criminal defamation.

“I was terrified,” Anne King told the newspaper. “I couldn’t believe I could be going to jail for something I said.”

Magistrate Judge Ralph Todd told her she had defamed her ex-husband’s character and ordered her not to contact him for any reason. She spent three hours in jail before posting $1,000 bond.

Ed Tolley, who until June was chairman of Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates ethics complaints against judges and recommends disciplinary action if needed, said the action against Anne King was a “blatant abuse of power.”

“I was so agitated because I knew it was not a crime,” he told the newspaper.

The charge of criminal defamation was ruled unconstitutional in 1982, Tolley said.

“If people can be arrested for a criticism of an ex-husband on social media, then you have what amounts to a totalitarian state,” said Cynthia Counts, a First Amendment attorney who’s one of King’s lawyers.

The case landed before State Court Judge John Dana. At a hearing, prosecutor Robert Wynn told the court, “just because something is legal does not make it right.”

“I don’t even know why we’re here,” Dana said, according to court documents.

Wynn ultimately agreed to drop the case.

But Anne King said she wanted to send a message. She sued Washington County, the sheriff’s office, Burgamy and her ex-husband.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Qualifications Commission began investigating Todd, who ended up resigning.

Last week, Anne King received a $100,000 settlement and an apology.

“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.”

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.”

Indiana
High court weighing blinded West Virginia delegate’s case
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Indiana’s Supreme Court is weighing whether to take up a lawsuit by West Virginia Del. Eric Porterfield over the 2006 parking lot brawl that left him blinded years before he was elected to office.

The Register-Herald reports the Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday. Attorneys sparred over whether Cavanaugh’s Sports Bar & Eatery has an obligation to its patrons once they leave and when that responsibility kicks in.

Porterfield was severely injured in a 3 a.m. fight that began when his friend made a comment to a female patron as the crowd was leaving. The friend wound up fighting with the woman’s boyfriend and others.
Porterfield got involved and had his eyes gouged.

Porterfield’s personal injury lawsuit claims the bar failed to take reasonable care for his safety.

Virginia
School board appealing decision on transgender bathroom ban
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia school board is seeking to convince an appeals court that its transgender bathroom ban didn’t discriminate against former student Gavin Grimm.

The Gloucester County School Board filed a 76-page brief late Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The brief says a federal judge in Norfolk wrongly interpreted federal protections to rule that Grimm’s rights were violated. The board says laws protect against discrimination based on gender, not gender identity.

Grimm was born a female but transitioned to male. The board argues that Grimm is still physically female and was treated like all other students when he was required to use girls’ restrooms or a private bathroom.

Grimm’s lawsuit was once a federal test case that drew national attention. He graduated from high school in 2017.

Florida
Online porn videos of missing teen lead to man’s arrest
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man is facing charges after being linked to almost 60 pornographic videos of a missing 15-year-old girl who police found alive.

The South Florida SunSentinel reports the girl’s mother found images of her daughter that had been posted on Periscope, Pornhub, Modelhub, Snapchat and other websites months after she went missing.
In the videos, the girl was with a bald man whom police recognized as someone the girl was with in February, when a convenience store clerk recognized her and called authorities.

Store surveillance video showed the girl trying to shield her face so the clerk couldn’t see her. The girl and the man got into a Dodge Challenger with another man and drove away.

Investigators eventually linked the car to 30-year-old Christopher Johnson and conducted surveillance at the man’s apartment in Davie. On Tuesday, they arrested him after he and the girl got into a black Dodge Challenger.

The girl told detectives that many of the porn videos had been made at Johnson’s apartment, according to a police report.

Johnson denied having sex with the girl, but “the victim stated that she got pregnant from the defendant and he took her to the clinic to have an abortion,” Detective Adam Granit wrote in the report.

No other details about the victim were provided, including why she left home or where she is now.

Johnson is charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a child and is being held on a $75,000 bond. A lawyer for him wasn’t listed in jail records.