Roger Shuler, Alabama’s Newest Political Prisoner
We have just learned that blogger Roger Shuler – whose Legal Schnauzer blog has been reporting allegations of corruption in Alabama’s courthouses, legal circles, and metaphorical smoke-filled political back rooms – was arrested late Wednesday on allegations of contempt of court. According to the digitaljournal.com report:
He is also nursing a swollen, black left eye that he probably got “bumping into a door knob” while “resisting arrest.” He is charged with two counts of contempt of court and one count of resisting arrest.
It would have been nice if digitaljournal.com’s William M. Schmalfeldt gave us a better idea of who exactly his source is, as the shiner supposedly left by “bumping into a doorknob” could just as easily have been caused by “bumping into a law enforcement officer’s thrown fist or elbow.” UPDATE: See comments. Bill Schmalfeldt’s original article can be read here. Looks like he and I are on the same wavelength about that “doorknob”!
Shuler has been (excuse the pun) doggedly reporting on allegations that Rob Riley, the son of former two-term governor Bob Riley who may have been mulling a run for Congress as a Republican, carried on an extramarital affair with lobbyist Liberty Duke.
According to his own blog, Shuler had learned that he is the target of litigation by Alabama Republican Robert Riley following what he reported as unconstitutional and possibly unlawful service of court papers in the guise of a ginned-up traffic stop by Shelby County sheriff deputy Lt. Mike DeHart, and that Riley had wanted him arrested.
He had also uncovered evidence that Rob Riley’s own law firm was writing court orders that should have been written by judiciary officials. Shuler has also been reporting on evidence that photos of a much-younger Circuit Court Justice Bill Pryor were published by the gay pron site badpuppy.com. Pryor is a staunch conservative with deep ties to the Alabama GOP.
In the wake of both stories having taken on a national profile through the blogosphere, you have to wonder whether law enforcement and judiciary decision makers have an idea that the arrest of Shuler looks imprudent at the least, malicious at worst, and gives the appearance – from Shuler’s black eye to what appears to be leaking of Shuler’s mug shot and selective information to digitaljournal.com and the credibility free American “Arkansas Project” spectator – that Shuler is the Southern regressives’ latest political prisoner.
