National Roundup

North Carolina
Court throws out conviction for online posts directed at DA
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court threw out the threat conviction Tuesday of a man for social media comments strongly criticizing a local district attorney, saying they did not meet the legal definition of a “true threat.”

Three state Court of Appeals judges hearing the case of David Warren Taylor, who was convicted in 2018 of threatening to kill Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch, found the felony count was applied unconstitutionality to him.

Taylor posted several comments to his personal Facebook page in 2016 that he deleted after a couple of hours. He was upset that Welch, the DA for several far western counties, was not prosecuting some parents in the death of a toddler, according to the opinion.

A Macon sheriff’s detective took screenshots of posts before they were deleted. One that read if “our head prosecutor won’t do anything then the death to her as well” served as the primary basis for the charge against Taylor.

In a whole-context review of the posts, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Linda McGee wrote no evidence was presented to support a finding that Taylor “in posting his comments was to cause D.A. Welch to believe defendant was going to kill her.” Proving a “true threat” is required by the First Amendment, based on a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, McGee wrote while offering standards for courts to handle such anti-threat statutes in North Carolina. The ruling directs that Taylor be acquitted.

Judge Richard Dietz, who wrote a separate opinion, described Taylor’s post as including “political hyperbole” about “his distrust in politicians, the justice system, and the government.” Such tirades, Dietz said, used to be limited to “living rooms or pool halls.”

“They now can be seen by everyone, everywhere,” Dietz wrote. “The First Amendment protects them either way.”

Tennessee
Judge allows lawsuit involving lawmaker and T-shirt to continue
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to proceed to trial, filed by a student alleging school officials wrongly distributed T-shirts promoting a Republican lawmaker accused of sexual misconduct.

The shirts were for a state Capitol field trip. Rep. David Byrd’s attorneys had argued the student didn’t attend the field trip, and therefore the case should be dismissed because the student wasn’t forced to wear the shirt.

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson disagreed. On Wednesday, Richardson said Byrd’s arguments weren’t sufficient.

“Plaintiff’s allegations of emotional injury, and of exclusion from his senior class trip, are sufficient to satisfy the first element of standing,” Richardson wrote.

Byrd hosted a “Senior Day on the Hill” for high school seniors in October 2018. A voice message was sent to families telling students to get shirts promoting Byrd and change before boarding school buses.

Shortly after the field trip, a student — who is not named in the lawsuit — filed a complaint against Byrd, claiming First and Fourteenth Amendment violations.

Three women have accused Byrd of sexual misconduct when he was their high school basketball coach decades ago.

Byrd has not outright denied the allegations, but in statements has said he’s truly sorry if he hurt or emotionally upset any of his students and said he has done nothing “wrong or inappropriate” during his time in the Tennessee Statehouse.

North Carolina
Judge warns about bribery trial juror contact
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered two men convicted of trying to bribe a North Carolina insurance regulator not to contact jurors from their recently completed trial after learning a consultant attempted to do so on their behalf.

U.S. District Judge Max Cog­burn Jr. wrote that he learned shortly after the March 5 guilty verdicts against insurance company magnate Greg Lindberg and John Gray that a man associated with the two was reaching out to jurors.

Cogburn said he told the U.S. attorney’s office in western North Carolina about it in order to conduct a “criminal investigation for jury harassment and intimidation.”

“The court will not tolerate attempts to taint the jury’s verdict by applying undue pressure on jury members,” Cogburn said while telling Lindberg, Gray, their attorneys and the consultant not to contact jurors during the ongoing investigation.

The consultant, identified as Matt McCusker, is president of a Convince LLC, a South Carolina-based company that conducts post-trial interviews and performs other litigation services. In a letter dated Tuesday and attached to Cogburn’s order, McCusker said he began reaching out to jurors after the verdict to see if they would be willing to discuss the case and talk about their experience.

“If the juror declined, I thanked them for their time and told them that they would not be hearing from me again,” he wrote. “To be crystal clear, there was no harassment, intimidation or bullying.”

But Cogburn wrote that a juror who declined to speak to the consultant was “allegedly told, ‘Don’t you know these men could get life?’” The two counts Gray and Lindberg were convicted on don’t include possible life sentences, Cogburn wrote.

Cogburn also pointed to the company’s website, which says it can benefit litigants by finding out if a juror “Googled during deliberations.”

“Arm yourself for an appeal. Prepare for the next iteration” of a trial, the site says.

Lindberg and Gray, a Lindberg consultant, were convicted of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. The pair’s sentencing date hasn’t been announced.

Federal prosecutors presented evidence to contend Lindberg, one of North Carolina’s largest political donors in recent years, conspired to funnel money to Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey in exchange for improved regulatory treatment for his companies. Causey, who was not charged, alerted authorities and cooperated in the case against Lindberg, recording conversations.

A third defendant, John Palermo, was acquitted of the two counts. A fourth person indicted in the case last year, former Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, accepted a plea agreement earlier and hasn’t been sentenced yet.