A sheriff’s deputy has been harshly criticised after he had his wife arrested over a Facebook post criticising his behaviour. In 2015 Anne King posted a status to Facebook calling out her ex-husband for not bringing medication to his children who were ill with the flu. The message read:
“That moment when everyone in your house has the flu and you ask your kid's dad to get them (not me) more Motrin and Tylenol and he refuses.” Some of her friends responded in agreement, with Susan Hines calling him a “POS” and saying “Give me an hour and check your mailbox. I'll be GLAD to pick up the slack.”
A Tennille woman is in court suing her ex-husband -- a Washington County Sheriff's deputy -- for her arrest in Jan. 2015 regarding a Facebook post. https://t.co/2E5UvivT2Z
— WGXA (@WGXAnews) 8 March 2018
While it’s not classy to air your relationship troubles on Facebook, it’s hardly a criminal offence. But that didn’t stop Corey King from having his wife and her friend, Susan Hines, charged with defamation of character over the “derogatory remarks”. The full warrant read:
“The subject did, without a privilege to do so and with intent to defame another, communicate false matter which tends to expose one who is alive to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, and which tends to provoke a breach of peace.”
Both women were arrested and then spent four hours in jail before finally being released on $1000 bail. When the case finally went before the court the judge was shocked by how frivolous it was and immediately dismissed it, saying,
“I don't even know why we're here.”
and some more police abusing power news: sheriff's ex-wife & her friend talk about sheriff on facebook. sheriff has ex-wife & her friend arrested for defamation. this type of arrest has been unconstitutional since early 80shttps://t.co/Srl0NaYUzR
— Arise (@rise804) 9 March 2018
Anne King was quick to counter-sue her husband, who may now be in some serious trouble given that “defamation of character” was ruled an unconstitutional law in 1982. Now the case has gone federal and Corey King has been accused of an egregious abuse of power. Corey King, meanwhile, blames the magistrate who authorised the arrest warrant, while the magistrate has defended himself saying no one ever notified him the charge was invalid.
Meanwhile Anne King is continuing to seek damages against her ex-husband. Her attorney, Ken Hodges, told the press they are looking to “hold those accountable who are going to use their positions of power over those who have no power."
He later added:
“The ironic thing is, she didn't even post anything derogatory. She just posted that she was feeling overwhelmed.”
