Posted on 06/25/2013 2:14:19 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
Full title: Prosecution attempts to silence Jared Marcum with gag order; reporter covering story threatened with arrest
WOWK has been the only news outlet following every new development in the case of Jared Marcum, the Logan County, West Virginia student who was suspended, arrested and is now facing an obstruction charge after refusing to change his NRA shirt at school. On Monday morning, June 24, Jared's case took yet another turn.
Nearly two weeks before Jared, the 14-year-old at the center of the "T-Shirt Control Controversy", was scheduled to be back in court, he found himself inside of the Logan County Courthouse for an emergency gag order hearing requested by prosecutors Christopher White and Sabrina Deskins.
"We were here because the prosecution filed a motion for a gag order," Jared's attorney Ben White said. "My opinion is because, seemingly, they want to take it out of the court of public opinion."
Prosecutors were hoping to bar Jared, his father and his lawyer from sharing their story with the press, under the guise that their request would serve Jared's better interest, something Jared's father Allen Lardieri sees as ironic.
"It was for Jared's better interest is what I was told, which seems to be a bit odd to me," Lardieri said. "These are the same individuals that are trying to prosecute him, so as far as them knowing what is in his better interest, I have a lot of questions about that."
Charlo Greene, on behalf of WOWK and the free press, prepared a petition to intervene for the gag order hearing but before Charlo could present her argument or even deliver her petition to the court clerk, she was thrown out of the Logan County Courthouse, twice, by a bailiff, who said the judge presiding over Jared's case, Eric O'Briant requested it. Charlo was then threatened with arrest and the same charge that Jared is currently on trial for, obstructing an officer.
Meanwhile, Jared met with prosecutors who withdrew their petition for a gag order, on the condition that Jared's parent waive the confidentiality that bars the prosecution from speaking freely about his case, due to him being a minor.
Jared, who is now facing the possibility of up to a year in jail, or juvenile confinement and up to a $500 fine for an obstruction charge that police say hinges on the fact that he refused to stop talking when they arrived at Logan Middle School to arrest him on April 18, is expected to be back in court on July 11.
Jared's attorney Ben White says he will continue working to have the charges against Jared thrown out.
The prosecutors and arresting officer refused to answer any of WOWK's questions.
Even if he had violated the dress code, which he apparently hadn't, how does his refusal to remove his shirt become a matter for the police? Are violations of a school's dress code now part of criminal law? If so, what specific statute?
I am an electrician with a high school education. All you need to learn you learn from home. The rest is just daycare with rare exception. That qualifier is for Mr. Gerald Hollingsworth, my history teacher who changed my world into something much better.
I believe those are rhetorical questions, right? This is the reason why is this so asinine. Unfortunately, we live in an age when people call 911 when they get the wrong order going though a drive thru window. The herd needs to be culled.
i have to be honest with you. I have more respect for electricians (hopefully not IBEW) than I do teachers. The older that I get the more respect I have for skilled workers vs. academic geeks. I am an Enterprise Architect (work in IT) and completely fed up with work politics, poor management, and people who do not keep up with technology to do their jobs. I am building a gunsmith business on the side, and maybe in a few years I will be skilled enough to do that full time.
Frantically shoveling like a cat in a litter box.
Fair has nothing to do with it. Prosecutors have long accepted that the defense has free reign to talk to the press, even though they can’t. So doing a coercive trick like this stinks to high heaven.
In effect they are saying that he and his family can’t exercise their 1st amendment rights unless the prosecution gets *special* rights that are typically denied them in the law, because he is a minor.
Civil rights don’t work that way.
Likewise, barring the press from the trial “for his protection” is also b.s. He is now a “public person”, with his name and image widely seen and associated with this case; so the only purpose in doing this is to hide even more government impropriety from the press.
The West Virginia legislature needs to impeach and remove the judge. Then the legislative judicial committee needs to investigate the prosecutors for civil rights violations. When the violation is found, indict and arrest them.
If patriots can’t control their own state, then you need to hold recall elections to throw out the traitors.
You conservatives best start thinking more about your families and less about your false god mammon.
Those whom Marxists can’t persuade, they silence one way or another.
Not really.
I'd like to know the legal basis for the school calling in the police on a matter that doesn't involve any crime having been committed. What legal basis did the cop have for even talking to the boy? Was there one? It doesn't appear to me that there was.
The cops-can-do-no-wrong crowd should be more than happy to answer your questions.
I haven’t heard the president say “If I had a son he’d look like Jared”. Nor has he said “The police acted stupidly.”
Excellent observation. Just shows how divided we are. (And we should be.)
We desperately need to see some police and public officials in GenPop after conviction of “under color of law” felonies. This kind of crap would end very quickly.
Time for a #freespeechforjared hashtag on Twitter.
If they can cite a specific statute or provide some other legitimate reason for the police involvement, I'd be more than happy to hear it. At this point, though, I don't see one. (An overreaction at the school doesn't create a legitimate need for police involvement in what should have been an internal matter for the school to handle.)
I understand. When I was going to school, either the teacher, Dean, or Principal would have handled it. One student had got in trouble with the law off school property and the cops were going to come to the school and arrest him. The Principal would not allow them to come on school property. He made them wait until the student left the school grounds. But he[the Principal ] could and would wear your ass out with a paddle when you messed up.
Yeh they have realized this whole thing is about to South on them in a big way and then there will be the lawssuit for damages filed by the kids parents. The prosecution is is desparation mode.
They know the potential of the criminal penalties they face for violations of the First AND Second Amendments:
18 United States Code §ection 241 -
Conspiracy against rights
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
How shameful that this kid and his parents will have to spend thousands of dollars over the course of years just to make this ridiculous situation go away. All over a t-shirt with a gun on it.
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