YouTuber and current resident of the Sullivan County, Indiana, Jail Craig Hendry made minor news as his appeal of his conviction in Greene County last year for Class B Misdemeanor false informing has seen official updates.
Hendry was convicted of essentially falsely telling the Linton, Indiana, town council that police had invaded his home and destroyed his property when they were seeking him for a warrant from charges in Vigo County in a 2022 incident.
While the YouTuber has already served his sentence for the Greene County charges, he is appealing the verdict itself and not the sentence. He is not seeking compensation for his time in jail, just to have the conviction stricken from his record.
This case has drawn the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union, who won a motion to appear as Amicus Curiae in support of Hendry. That organization submitted a brief on Hendry’s behalf with the court in April.
The latest updates to the case started on May 4, 2026, when the State responded to Hendry’s opening brief by filing their appellee brief.
In the document, attorneys for the State of Indiana wrote:
The trial court properly denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss the false informing charge. Defendant fails to meet his heavy burden to show that the false informing statute is unconstitutional on its face. The statute criminalizes false and defamatory statements against a police officer, which is unprotected speech under the First Amendment. Even if the statute incidentally impacts protected speech, the statute meets two of three exceptions enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992), and survives intermediate scrutiny. Last, the statute does not impermissibly discriminate based on viewpoint. Including false statements in support of police officers under the statute would implicate protected speech and not meet the definition of defamation. The statute narrowly criminalizes only unprotected speech.
The false informing statute was constitutional as applied to Defendant. Defendant waived this claim by not alleging below that his speech was “hyperbolic rhetoric;” rather, his claim below was that his statements were true and thus he did not commit the elements of the offense. Waiver aside, Defendant’s speech was defamatory, not merely hyperbole. Both “kicked in the door” and “kidnapped” fell within the definition of defamation, and both are susceptible of being true or false. Both were proven false at trial.
The false informing statute is not unconstitutionally vague. The elements of the offense give reasonable notice that a person who makes defamatory statements against a police officer to his employer, knowing those statements are false, commits the crime under Subsection (d)(5). The statute does not invite arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement because it is narrow in scope. The scarcity in which the statute has been used to prosecute speaks not only to its narrow applicability, but to prosecutor discretionary restraint in analyzing the First Amendment issues. This Court should affirm the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s motion to dismiss and affirm Defendant’s conviction.
On May 14, Alexander W. Robbins, of Ahler & Robbins LLP, who is representing Hendry in the appeal, asked the court for oral arguments in the case. Robbins stated that the case is seeking to determine the constitutionality of Indiana Code § 35-44.1-2-3(d)(5).
He is challenging the statute on the grounds that it brings impermissible discrimination towards Hendry on the basis of his viewpoints and that it is overly vague. Robbins asserted that Hendry was convicted using the statute despite his speech being protected by the first amendment.
No rulings have been made in either issue as of press time.
The new attention brought to Hendry’s on-going legal troubles did nothing to bring donations to either of Hendry’s existing GoFundMe campaigns.
Roy Tripoloni’s GoFundMe devoted to James “James Freeman” Springer brought in $268.00 on Tuesday to win the crowd sourcing title. He was followed by Angel “Kansas City Accountability” Moses, who brought in $10.00 towards his Justice for Unlawful Arrest in Ohio campaign.
Tripoloni’s campaign won Wednesday as well, bringing in $163.00 to the campaign for Springer despite no need for new money towards the initial purpose of the campaign as Springer has been out of jail for a week and no longer needs to post bond.
Angel Moses again placed second with $35.00 in new donations. No other campaigns that we follow brought in donations for either day.
While Hendry’s Greene County legal activity may have pauses during the appeals process, Hendry’s court schedule while serving the rest of his time in Sullivan County has an early June appearance scheduled in Vermillion County for a bond reduction hearing in his trial for intimidation: threat to commit a forcible felony and battery.
After that, Hendry is scheduled for trial on those charges in early August.
This is a developing news story.
Crowd Sourcing Results
