Closing the book on the Shiawassee Sheriff

This was originally posted as an open thread over on BFM. Refined and reposted here.

Ok, yesterday, we left Darth Poo in the dustbin, and I had a new appreciation for law enforcement. That whole scenario was resolved in September of 2007.

Fast forward to October, 2007. The Shiawassee County Commissioners approve raises for several of the county officials. The County Clerk, Drain Commissioner, Register of Deeds and Treasurer, all received raises of about $5K, to bring their salaries up to just over $50K. The Sheriff only received a raise of about $3K, to bring his salary up to $77K. He had asked for $82,000, and he didn’t appreciate receiving less than the requested amount:

“I think it’s terrible, I would never have asked for a raise with the way the economy is right now if no one else got a raise,” Wilson said, adding the commissioners should take a cut to “level the playing field.”

Outside the meeting, Wilson said he believes the cut in his raise is politically driven since next year is an election year.

I can’t know for sure, but I doubt that this was political. The Sheriff gets a nice SUV (with a county provided fuel card) and a big retirement package, in addition to his salary. These things were taken into consideration by the commissioners.

So this little “pay cut” controversy stirred up the pot, and we had a bunch of letters to the editor and chit-chat in the coffee shops, but what caught my attention was this:

Wilson doesn’t deserve his wages/Facts about our Sheriff

The WORST mistake Shiawassee County has ever made was electing Jon Wilson for Sheriff. He has no clue how to run or manage the Sheriffs Department. He has literally single handily brought turmoil and an unpleasant working environment into the Sheriffs Department.

Did you know that if anyone within the Sheriffs Department runs against Jon in the next election they will be fired, demoted, or made so miserable they end up leaving?

…

Jon Wilson does not deserve the money he makes because he does not EARN it.

I hope that someone steps up to run against Jon in the next election, and if they do watch and listen to what happens to them because of it. THEN you will see the REAL Jon Wilson

Now, going forward there are two things you have to understand. First of all, I’m the admin for the Shiawassee Forums, which really doesn’t mean much except that people seem to think of the forums as “Christine’s web site.” Which leads some people to think that anything said on the forums is my personal statement. I don’t really get that, but that’s how it is. Second, I hate bullies, and I especially hate the ones who pick on people they know can’t fight back, or walk away without some kind of repercussion. For example, a supervisor who bullies his subordinate in the workplace. And I especially especially hate the cowards who bully and intimidate people while hiding behind anonymity. I hate them to the point that I will destroy the both of us if that’s what I have to do to make a bully stop his bullying.

This screwed up mentality comes into play in a few months.

Ok, the buzz goes on in the forums, and some pretty nasty things are said about the Sheriff. I allowed most of it because he is a public figure, though I had some of it removed because I thought it crossed the line into libel. Most of it was a bunch of anonymous people complaining about a politician they didn’t like. I didn’t know how much was true, but I knew something was going on, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. So I hired Chet Zarko, and you can read about that here.

Once the ball got rolling, the Sheriff’s people got nasty. Really nasty. First, it was little things. People popping up on the forums and on my web site and making snotty remarks and calling me names. Ok, whatever.

Then it was anonymous letters from someone at the Sheriff’s church, being sent to my house. God loves me and all of the Sheriff’s accusers just as much as He loves Jon Wilson.

Then it was someone showing up at my house in the middle of the night, to dump their garbage on my deck. It’s a horrible feeling to get up in the morning and find out someone was at your house while you were sleeping, and you didn’t know they were there. Seriously, that’s crossing the line.

And then there was all the talk. I counted at least a dozen lies that people were telling about me, and that’s just what got back to me. Horrible accusations that were absolutely baseless, that involved me filing for bankruptcy so I could keep my house while I went off to jail, me running a sex crime ring (which means I shouldn’t be bankrupt, but, whatever), and me bringing little kids home for disgusting activities. I can’t even repeat what I was hearing, it’s just sick.

But I can’t even put in to words what it was like to get in the morning and find this email from one of the anonymous people on the forums:

This website is bullshit. www.christinebarry________.com

(I removed the last part of the URL)

It was a wordpress blog, with my picture at the top. The domain name was purchased on the day that this aired, and each post was written within about 24 hours of something happening to the Sheriff. Sheriff got unfavorable Argus coverage? A post about me went up. Deputies launched a lawsuit? Post about me went up. It was sick and it was really personal, and totally a violation of Michigan law.

This particular post in question, was the one that got “her” sued:

My friends tell me Christine Barry is talking about how happy she is to be going to Denver to the Democratic National Convention. Of course, even the Democrats won’t allow a _____________ like Christine Barry to be a delegate. How and why she should be allowed on the floor of the convention is beyond me? Democrats in attendance, watch your ________ if Christine is standing near you or she might just _________ you, too.
Is it common for U.S. political parties to allow ____________ and criminals to attend their functions? (save your jokes about all politicians being criminals!)
The Shiawassee county Democratic Party must be so pleased with its little _______!

The author of the blog claimed to be a young girl named Isabella, from Spain, here in America for some kind of media class at some college, somewhere. I’m not going to tell you who I named in the lawsuit, but I’ll tease you with this – what kind of people know what a convention delegate is? Who would hate the Democrats?

This was nothing but an attempt to intimidate me and punish me for speaking up about the Sheriff.

I sued, it was resolved, and I’m fine with it now. I’m really pleased that we didn’t go to court, because I didn’t want to be the poster child for bloggers rights in Michigan. Is a blogger a public figure? Do we have the same protections as reporters? And so on.

(Side note: since I made bumper stickers and was on the news, I probably would’ve been considered a public figure under Michigan law)

I also didn’t want to go through a lawsuit and have my entire life opened up to the public. However, I feel I had enough evidence to convince a jury who put up the site, that it was libel, and that I was damaged. And since I hate bullies, I would have seen it all the way through to the mutually destructive conclusion.

(Side note #2: Since a blogger and a newspaper reporter were victims of this site, and this may have created new law in Michigan, I fully expected it to become a big story in the press. It would not have been a quiet thing, and therefore, all of the lies about me would have been repeated on the Internet and in the press. And if I had to go through all of that, I would have done everything possible to humiliate the shit out of the people who put me in that position.)

Because of the lawsuit, I was able to subpoena information about the people who were involved in the libel. This blog wasn’t the only libel; there were other online incidents by other “people” … “Lurker/WTF/AnonymousWriterOwosso” and “Scully.” I’m hoping that these people recognize that I’m not embarrassing them by revealing their identities. I’m sure that they’re still bitching about me to their friends, but maybe in private they’ll understand that this is a gesture of goodwill, and there isn’t any reason for us to fight anymore.

The way I look at it, the Sheriff thing was like a divorce. You saw the absolute worst of some normally good people. I’m not the only one who was subject to character assassination. Deana Finnegan , George Braidwood, the Argus Press reporter who broke the story, some of our Commissioners, and our County Coordinator …. All of them were trashed in some way by people who were trying to support the Sheriff. As far as I know, I was the only one who sued, but I don’t talk to any of the others, so I don’t know how they handled their situations.

Was it horrible, what happened to us? Yes. Will it happen again? Probably not. So I don’t see any reason to punish the people involved by embarrassing them. Enough is enough and it’s ok for all of us to move on now. But I also felt that it was appropriate to write about this, so that we can all learn from this. We don’t have to handle our disagreements this way. I think we are better than this.

One thing I will mention is that a local ISP involved itself in the issue. In short, they were willing to send one of their employees to court to defend the person who used their service to commit libel. I’m surprised that a local business would want to insert itself into a sticky political and legal mess. Most people want to stay out of these things. Not these people … this ISP is not only willing to admit that their services were used to violate state law, but they are also willing to send a defense witness to say that the defendant shouldn’t be punished for breaking the law, because the victim sucks.

Normally it would just be sad that someone would think it was ok to break the law because they didn’t like the victim, but this was especially sad because I have always been so supportive of this company. Admittedly, I’m not sure that I’m anything special … they might provide professional defense witness services for all of their customers who violate state law.

The conduct of this ISP just reaffirms my belief that the Shiawassee County Forums can never be hosted in Shiawassee County, or by any local organization. The only way people can be free to speak up and speak the truth without some kind of administrative repercussion (getting fired, losing business, etc.) is to make sure that anonymity is protected. What if that local ISP had been hosting the forums when the Sheriff (or anyone else) was asking for information about the forum users?

For the record, I’m only bringing this up because it might help them understand the significance of what they did, considering who their customers are.

Anywaaayyyy … months before this libel issue was resolved, Deana Finnegan won the Republican primary, and then George Braidwood won the general election. So we now have a Democratic Sheriff, which I honestly never cared that much about, except in the general sense that a Democrat in office is almost always better than a Republican in office. (In my humble opinion, of course!) In fact, I never cared who the Sheriff was, until I felt that Sheriff Wilson turned this into a personal war with me. I wasn’t trying to run Jon Wilson out of office. The fact is, those Deputies who helped me with Darth made me feel safe. I was scared when I went to them. I was scared of Darth and I was scared of them, and when I left, I wasn’t scared anymore. That was a big deal for me, and I knew they were working in a bad environment, and I thought maybe I could do something nice for them. I thought maybe the Sheriff would stop the bad behavior in the workplace. It never occurred to me that the he would not be re-elected.

Ultimately, I do appreciate the irony that it was Mike Bishop got the ball rolling. George Braidwood could’ve won an election without my involvement, but if not for local grassroots and netroots efforts, Sheriff Wilson would not have alienated the Argus Press, and that’s what really hurt him in the election. People just don’t like it when you mess with their press.

You can read the details about the Sheriff’s saga here.