The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Going Gets Weird: Alabama Liberal Blogger Arrested on Contempt Charge

Posted on | October 26, 2013 | 52 Comments

Roger Shuler, Shelby County Jail inmate No. 288928

I reported this Friday at The American Spectator:

Alabama attorney/blogger Roger Shuler was arrested Thursday in Shelby County and held without bond, charged with two counts of contempt of court in a case that has sparked conspiracy theories pointing the finger of blame at Republican officials, including the son of former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.
Capt. Ken Burchfield of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday that Shuler was being held in the county jail in Columbiana pending a hearing. Shuler was arrested “pursuant to a court order,” and was also charged with resisting arrest, Burchfield said. A jail mugshot showed Shuler, inmate No. 288928, with an apparent swollen bruise on his left eye.
Shuler is a liberal blogger who has been sued for defamation by Riley’s son Rob, by lobbyist Liberty Duke and by Republican lobbyist Jessica Garrison. At his Legal Schnauzer blog, Shuler has claimed that Rob Riley had an extramarital affair that led to Duke’s divorce. Schuler has also been sued by Garrison, a divorcee whom he accused of having a “long running affair” with Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. . . .

You can read the whole thing. It has been reported elsewhere that Shuler was actually arrested Wednesday. The timing of Shuler’s arrest is relevant because I mentioned Thursday night that Shuler’s blog had been used in 2012 to spread the ridiculously false claim that Karl Rove was having a gay affair with Ali Akbar — a claim which originated with “a political operative on the left,” who I suspect to be Brett Kimberlin associate Neal Rauhauser. And, strange as it may seem, both Rauhauser and Bill Schmalfeldt tried Friday to claim that Schuler’s arrest had something to do with me. Ridiculous, right?

In fact, Shuler had refused to attend a court hearing on a contempt motion by the plaintiffs Riley and Duke, and had continued to publish a lot of conspiracy-theory crap about Karl Rove and Jack Abramoff (neither of whom have anything to do with this case), also alleging that the presiding judge was corrupt, et cetera.  It was kinda like the Barrett Brown case, without the YouTube meltdown.

Guess what? You can’t do that.

I mean, you can’t scoff at the court’s authority and denounce the judge as corrupt and not expect to get a contempt citation. You can’t do that even if you believe the court is violating your rights.

Lots of people feel they get screwed over in court — ask any divorced man ordered to pay child support to his no-good two-timing ex-wife — but they are still required to cooperate in ordinary court proceedings. And it doesn’t matter if you are a journalist or a blogger and the case is about politics, you’re still obligated to respect the court, even though competent authorities advise you that the court’s orders are an unconstitutional “prior restraint” on free speech.

I say this with full knowledge that Brett Kimberlin, The World’s Worst Pro Se Litigant™, is trying to use both Maryland and federal courts in an attempt to shut me up. Even if you’re being sued by a creepy perjuring bomber, you still have to respect the court.

Or move to Vanuatu, which I still haven’t ruled out.

Anyway, I had nothing to do with the arrest of Roger Shuler, but I’m not going to be suing Bill Schmalfeldt for defamation, because there’s no need to sue a lying scumbag when you can just expose the lying scumbag, and then double-dog dare him to sue you.

The burden of proof is always on the plaintiff, see? Good luck to anyone seeking to prove Bill Schmalfeldt is not a lying scumbag and, as far as Rob Riley’s alleged affair is concerned . . .

No, I’d better not tell you what Karl Rove told me about that.

Shhhh. It’s a conspiracy.

 

Category: Alabama, Bill Schmalfeldt, Conspiracy Theories, Roger Shuler, The Kimberlin Files

Comments

52 Responses to “The Going Gets Weird: Alabama Liberal Blogger Arrested on Contempt Charge”

  1. Jason
    October 27th, 2013 @ 11:04 am

    That’s no bruised eye. It’s as white as a bone. He’s squinting because he’s forcing the other eye closed. It’s not closed on it’s own and there’s no swelling at all.

  2. Roger Shuler: Another Kook Succumbs to ‘Investigative Blogger Syndrome’ : The Other McCain
    October 27th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm

    […] rather nuanced. Maybe this whole thing is too “meta” for most people to care about. But I’m not in the Shelby County Jail, and Roger Shulter is — because he’s a […]