A Cartoon Got Him Arrested 200 Miles Away: The D.J. Byrnes Case

A progressive blogger named D.J. Byrnes, who runs the newsletter The Rooster, was sitting in a public hearing at the Ohio Statehouse when the State Highway Patrol walked up and arrested him. The charge was a first-degree misdemeanor for telecommunications harassment. The conduct behind it was an AI cartoon of Shrek and two text messages sent to State Senator Jerry Cirino, a Lake County Republican Byrnes has mocked in print for years.

The warrant came from Kirtland, up in Lake County, about 200 miles from where Byrnes was arrested in Franklin County. That distance is the whole story.

I ran a police department. I have entered warrants and made the pickup radius call myself. A non-violent misdemeanor warrant is supposed to reach your county and the ones next to it, never clear across the state. For this arrest to happen the way it did, somebody had to enter the warrant with a statewide reach. Somebody checked that box on a Shrek picture.

In this episode I walk the documents in order, facts first and claims labeled as claims:

• What Ohio Revised Code 2917.21 actually requires, and why intent is the hinge the whole case swings on
• State v. Ellison and why "offensive" is not the same as "harassing"
• How the complaint came in, a senator emailing the chief by name asking for charges, then telling reporters he requested no such thing
• The judge who signed the warrant and carries that senator's campaign endorsement
• The affidavit that pulled banking records and out-of-state history over three text messages
• Four discretionary forks in the road, and why every single one broke toward the most aggressive option

None of it is illegal. That is exactly what should bother you. This is the kind of abuse of power that uses the law instead of breaking it, one perfectly legal choice at a time.

Pro Cop, Not Pro Corruption.

Read more and follow the case: www.theinfamousexchief.com Everything in one place: https://liinks.co/the.infamous.exchief