Law Blogger Harassed By Sheriff’s Deputy With Bogus Traffic Stop
Late yesterday, Roger Shuler, author of the Legal Schnauzer blog, revealed a little bit more about the pattern of harassment by legal authorities in the wake of his reporting on both photos of an appellate court judge on a gay porn site and corrupt conduct in the wake of a GOP political operative’s ugly divorce. The latest:
A video produces evidence that a sheriff’s deputy in Shelby County, Alabama, conducted a phony traffic stop in order to serve court papers on me, in the wake of our reporting here at Legal Schnauzer about photos of U.S. Judge Bill Pryor that appeared at a gay porn site in the 1990s.
As I reported yesterday, Lt. Mike DeHart stopped my wife and me as we parked on Sunday afternoon at the North Shelby County Library. DeHart claimed I had rolled through a stop sign while making a left-hand turn at the intersection of MacIan Lane and Keith Drive in the Broken Bow South neighborhood, where we have lived for 23 years.
I immediately informed DeHart that he was mistaken, but he took my license and registration and retreated to his patrol vehicle. When DeHart returned, he presented me with a warning for the “rolling stop” and then handed me some court papers, saying, “Mr. Shuler, you’ve been served.”
When I quickly realized that I had been the victim of an unlawful traffic stop, I confronted DeHart and called him a “fraud” and a number of other choice words. We nearly got into a physical altercation, and he threatened to arrest me before my wife spoke in a tone of voice that made it clear DeHart was going to have to deal with her. A false move at that point likely would have put DeHart’s career at risk–especially when it was clear he had no lawful grounds to stop us, and we were about to enter the veritable den of sin that is the North Shelby Library.
We wouldn’t say DeHart is out of the woods yet, as Roger’s video demonstration shows:
It also appears that DeHart was trying to serve papers related to that messy divorce cited above. Roger moved that story a bit further late yesterday:
An Alabama lawyer states in a recent letter that Republican political operative Jessica Medeiros Garrison lied under oath in her divorce case from Tuscaloosa politician and insurance man Lee Garrison.
Jessica Garrison perhaps is best known at the moment for her long-running extramarital affair with Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. Garrison apparently has filed a lawsuit against me, claiming my reports on the Strange affair are false and defamatory. (I say “apparently” because I have not been lawfully served with the complaint and have not read it. All I know about it comes from a report at Alabama Political Reporter.)
Jessica Garrison’s credibility, however, takes a serious hit in an August 26 letter from Birmingham attorney Lisa L. Woods. The letter is addressed to W. Cam Parsons, a lawyer for Tuscaloosa businessman Stan Pate.
Read the rest here. Yes, we know. A GOP political operative lying in a court proceeding? We’re shocked. Not!
