Observers of social media icon, first amendment champion and bicycling enthusiast Lane Myers will have to wait another month for his next appearance in an Arizona “secret court” as Thursday’s second day of hearings to show evidence of a possible probation violation now has now carried over to a third day, now set for September 14, 2026.
Thursday’s hearing became a subject of the “secret court” moniker to Myers’ fans because media streaming or recording has not been allowed by Judge D. Douglas Metcalf. That moniker was apparently renewed at the hearing since Metcalf denied two requests to stream and/or record the hearing, including one by area resident Jason Jenson.
Our court observer, JudyYouGotThis, was present in the courtroom and this report is based on her notes from the proceedings.
Myers is represented by Mark “The Shark” Resnick, a public defender who Myers specifically asked to work his trial last year after having fired his previous public defender. Unfortunately for Myers, Resnick started the day with a Motion to Preclude new evidence in the case.
Resnick complained that he is too busy with other cases to devote to reviewing new evidence sent to him by prosecutor Rachel Stiles. Stiles countered that it was an evidentiary hearing and Resnick’s client has been doing interviews with supporters on a near nightly basis and putting out statements through Andrea “Illuminate the Dark” Dotson’s YouTube channel frequently.
This included a challenge video that Myers himself had Dotson release on Wednesday, accusing the victim’s husband of perjury during testimony and challenging anyone to find evidence that he told his supporters to contact the victim. He added a $100.00 bounty for that information with a promise to remove his YouTube channel.
That video was removed for “editing” after several people found such evidence, including the victim’s husband.
Myers also livestreamed from the Pima County Adult Correctional Facility Wednesday night, which was aired on Zachary “Liberty Troll” Kueker’s channel.
It’s unclear if Resnick was aware of either action by his client.
His motion to preclude was denied by Judge Metcalf because he felt that the prosecution should not be penalized for Resnick failing to keep up with his own client’s activities.
Resnick’s inability to secure simple facts about his client’s case were on display as at one point, when he was cross examining the victim’s husband, he stated that court observer Judy owned ReallyCoolNews.
A simple whois search for the ownership of the reallycoolnews.org domain would show ownership of the URL dating back to 2001 by the same person, long before the internet knew the name “Lane Myers” as a social media influencer a marijuana enthusiast rather than a reference to a character played by John Cusack in the 1980’s teen comedy ‘Better Off Dead.’
Further investigation, or any investigation of all, would establish ReallyCoolNews as an online publication devoted to first amendment auditors and cop watchers beginning in late 2022, with a video presence on YouTube starting in May of 2024. All ownership claims and all content produced by a single person with JudyYouGotThis joining the staff long after the establishment of the publication.
During cross examination, Resnick would then attempt to establish that Myers has no control over his followers. While he could tell them to do things, like contact the victim, he was not responsible for what they did from that point forward. Myers has free will, his fans have free will, what happens when he tells them to do anything is up to the decision making of those individuals.
Strangely, Resnick would later use the defense of Myers’ increased presence online and 13+ hour livestreams because Myers was so triggered by reporting on ReallyCoolNews that the publication essentially manipulated Myers into violating his own probation.
At one point, going so far as to claim that the victim would not have been notified of Myers’ actions at any point unless they saw a report by ReallyCoolNews with the implication that Myers would not have allegedly violated his parole if it weren’t for the report, which came after the alleged violation, but really really really was responsible for his actions.
The fictional quote of a Scooby Doo villain, “He coulda gotten away with it if it weren’t for that pesky ReallyCoolNews” immediately sprang to mind for many observers of Judy’s reporting on the ReallyCoolNews recap after the hearing on Thursday.
Continuing the pattern, Resnick presented a stack of screen shots that Myers had taken from the ReallyCoolNewsWire Discord server and attempted to ask the victim’s husband about them. This gambit failed since the victim’s husband did not have a Discord account and knew nothing about the screen shots.
Resnick, to his credit, would pivot, attempting to paint his client’s alleged violations as a free speech issue. He claimed that Myers’ bringing up people with similar names to his victim was an expression of his constitutional right to use the name when he clearly was not talking about his victim.
The victim’s husband reminded Mr. Resnick that Mr. Myers pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and harassment. Myers also agreed to the terms of his probation. One of those terms was that he was not to use the name of the victim on any social media platform including YouTube.
As the hearing was going late in the day, discussions were held about the next court date with the September court date eventually being agreed to by the judge and attorneys. At this time defendant Myers insisted that he needed to be released from jail since the hearing was being suspended for so long.
That request was denied.
Myers then asked for a bond, again, so he could be released from jail.
That request was again denied.
Myers was then taken into custody, where he will remain until at least September 14, 2026. Before leaving the courtroom, Myers pledged that he would spend the month making new videos about his victim.
All was not bad for the social media influencer turned defendant as Myers won the crowd sourcing title for Friday, with a single $100.00 donation to his GiveSendGo account, placed by someone during his probation revocation hearing. The First Amendment Protection Agency placed second, with $6.00 in new donations for the day.
Reactions to the outcome of Thursday’s hearings by Myers were swift. Supporter Josh “This is a Public Service” Gray immediately posted to his YouTube community page:
Is it time to get the pitchforks? Lane Myers hearing is over for today and going to continue September 14th 😳 at 11am. Lying Legal Loser Matt Walker still on stand. If you’re outraged email the judge. (Judge’s e-mail address redacted)
Supporter Blue Line Transparency wrote on his YouTube community page:
“Rehabilitation” is what Arizona calls it’s campaign to silence dissenters. What neutral penological goal could possibly be advanced by censoring a burning blue line terrorism flag? They approve the terrorism flag when it’s not on fire. This simple demonstration highlights the entire case against Lane Myers. Had Myers been talking about child preds nobody would care! But when you talk negatively about the King you will be punished. Had Myers done absolutely nothing different (Voicemail, Videos, Contact Info) except say nice things about these people he would have never been charged. The weaponization of the justice system to push a narrative is the Domestic Terrorism accustomed to the thin blue line terrorism flag and its cult members.
Blue Line transparency’s statement included a bizarre graphic of several images of reporter JudyYouGotThis transforming into a clown, the blue line flag bursting into flames and a graphic stating “media denied.”
Myers himself held no new interviews Thursday night, with unofficial spokesperson Andrea “Illuminate the Darkness” Dotson’s channel remaining silent.
This is a breaking news story.
[Full disclosure: Mr. Myers has both threatened to sue and/or to file an injunction against ReallyCoolNews. If you’d like to contribute to our fund set up to fight possible legal action/keep the lights on/keep the cats fed, our GoFundMe is located at https://www.gofundme.com/f/reallycoolsite-ongoing-expenses.]
