What is playing out to be a desperate move that sounds like an April Fool’s gag but isn’t, saw Lane Myers release a form letter via Josh Gray’s “This is a Public Service” YouTube channel Monday night with a list of media and political contacts for his fans to spam just hours before his scheduled court appearance to determine if he can livestream from jail.
The list of contacts targets all the local news stations in the Tucson area, the Arizona Attorney General, the Board of Supervisors Supervisor, various officials at the University of Arizona, United States Congressmen and Senators, State Senators and the prosecutors in Myers’ various legal battles.
Myers’ list does not contain his victim’s name or contact information. Gray’s recent postings on behalf of Myers’ have told his fans not to contact the victim and warned that they could face legal charges if they made contact with her.
The letter itself has been describe by readers as a rambling mess in which Myers names his victim and accuses her of making false allegations against him which resulted in the injunctions that led to his jailing.
Myers states in the letter, “There is no evidence of true threats, incitement to violence, or any other established First Amendment exception. Mr. Myers has never posted Ms. Walker’s personal or home contact information. Everything he has posted is publicly available information. All of the charges against him stem from Mr. Myers’s constitutionally protected right to redress his government.”
The letter excuses Myers’ alleged actions against his victim by restating that Myers is a journalist and that the victim is a public figure. It asks his potential readers to rally against his treatment as, “These criminal charges have Mr. Myers potentially facing years in prison, depending on how the jury verdict and Arizona’s sentencing laws interact. And under the State’s legal theory, which now two courts have adopted without reaching the constitutional issues, Mr. Myers could theoretically continue being charged indefinitely, even from prison, should he “indirectly contact” the victim or “directly or indirectly encourage third parties” to contact her. This is an absurd result that cannot stand. Mr. Myers is not receiving justice through the judicial system. The judicial system is repeatedly and blatantly abridging Mr. Myers’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom to petition the government, simply because Mr. Myers criticized government actors.”
As promised, Myers has also begun to release what he claims to be a treasure trove of his recordings of various public officials, federal agents and police officers to Gray’s YouTube channel. Monday’s call was with Pima County Criminal Investigator Mack Dunham.
Myers’ letter concludes with a call to action to its intended reader:
“The Arizona harassment laws, as they are being applied to Mr. Myers, violate both the First Amendment and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. As a United States citizen, I am extremely concerned about this situation. I am concerned not only because Mr. Myers is currently detained indefinitely for speaking publicly about public court proceedings involving a government employee, but also because the ability of all Americans to redress their government is being threatened. The State cannot be allowed to prosecute free speech in order to silence speech it does not like or that criticizes it. In fact, the fundamental purpose of the First Amendment is to protect speech that is critical of the government.
The right to criticize and redress the government is one of the most fundamental rights in America. Yet a man is currently jailed and facing the threat of years in prison for doing just that. The prosecution of Lane Myers is chilling my First Amendment right as a citizen to criticize and redress my government. This is unacceptable, and I ask that you immediately take action to investigate and correct this situation.”
It’s unclear how effective Myers’ efforts will be. He’s currently being held without bond in the Pima County Adult Correctional Facility.
A hearing to determine if he can livestream from jail is scheduled for 4:30PM Eastern. We’ll be simulcasting the hearing on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83lDcyVDnWg
