Retired cop jailed for 37 days over Charlie Kirk meme sues, saying his First Amendment rights were violated
By Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN) — A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer was held in jail for more than a month this fall after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal charge brought against Larry Bushart, but his stint behind bars came to exemplify the country’s tense political and legal climate following the tragedy, when conservatives sought to stymie public discourse about the late controversial figure that it saw as objectionable.
Now, Bushart is suing over his incarceration.
In a 30-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee, Bushart argues he was unlawfully prosecuted over the meme and that officials violated his free speech rights, targeting him “simply for speaking his mind.”
“It is clearly established that the First Amendment prohibits government officials from arresting people for protected political speech,” lawyers for Bushart wrote in the complaint. He’s being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Bushart’s legal woes started 10 days after Kirk, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump who worked last year to get him reelected, was fatally shot during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University on September 10. The former police officer shared a meme on Facebook about a vigil being held in Tennessee for Kirk.
“This seems relevant today,” read the meme, which included a photo of Trump and a quote the then-candidate made in 2024 following a shooting at Perry High School in Des Moines, Iowa.
“We have to get over it,” Trump is quoted as saying in the meme.
Four officers came to Bushart’s home the next day, arrested him and took him to jail for “threatening mass violence at a school.” Authorities at the time said that the post was understood locally to be a threat to an area school that has a similar name to the one where the 2024 shooting occurred, according to court records.
Bushart was held behind bars for 37 days because he was unable to pay the $2 million bond imposed on him. In late October, a district attorney in Tennessee moved to drop the single charge brought against him, and he was subsequently released.
“When Mr. Bushart posted the meme, he had no inkling or reason to think that anyone would take it as a threat of violence. And unsurprisingly, defendants … have produced no evidence that any person interpreted the meme as a threat,” the lawsuit states. “In fact, the Perry County School District has no records at all concerning Mr. Bushart or the meme.”
The lawsuit names as defendants Perry County, Tennessee,; Nick Weems, the county’s sheriff; and Jason Morrow, a county investigator involved in the probe into Bushart.
Weems, according to the lawsuit, directed local police to arrest Bushart, and both men “understood” the meme “as political commentary on the debate about guns in America, but orchestrated his arrest anyway.”
CNN has reached out to the county for comment. Weems and Morrow could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bushart is asking for a jury trial in the case, which seeks both monetary and punitive damages for the alleged violations of his rights.
His lawyers said in court papers that their client, who is the primary breadwinner for his house, lost his post-retirement job because of his time in jail and that the episode has stifled his “participation in online political conversation because he is afraid that something like his arrest and incarceration might happen to him again.”
“I spent over three decades in law enforcement, and have the utmost respect for the law,” Bushart said in a statement Wednesday. “But I also know my rights, and I was arrested for nothing more than refusing to be bullied into censorship.”
The-CNN-Wire
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