By Adam Pagnucco.
Eric Saul, the founder of the satirical website Takoma Torch, has been charged with one count of criminal harassment by the State of Maryland. According to Saul, the reason is a mean tweet.
First, some background. Saul is a prominent figure in MoCo politics for three reasons. First, he is an architect who is active in the county’s YIMBY (yes in my backyard) movement and advocates for more housing. Second, he is the treasurer of Affordable Maryland PAC, a Super PAC that spent a million dollars to topple County Executive Marc Elrich in the last election and recently participated in the Rockville and Gaithersburg city elections. Third, he is locally famous for founding the Takoma Torch and creating the fictitious mascot Nimbee to mock development opponents.
The harassment charge is rooted in an exchange between Saul and Ryan Miner. Miner is a Western Maryland native and is the founder of A Miner Detail, a blog about state and county politics in Maryland. He ran unsuccessfully for school board in Washington County in 2014 and has worked for Republican candidates like Donald Munson and Dan Bongino in the past. He then moved to Montgomery County and is now an unaffiliated voter. He takes on political figures of both the left and the right, sometimes using sharp elbows. He has had a few brushes with the courts including guilty pleas on charges for simple assault and harassment in Pennsylvania in 2007, a guilty plea on a DUI in Carroll County in 2013 and a peace order in Frederick County last year. A motion to seal the Carroll County DUI was denied last October.
Laura Stewart, the PTA vice president who is currently running for school board, is one of the many MoCo political players that Miner dislikes. Miner has attacked her as “one of the worst and most notorious online bullies” and “fundamentally dangerous to MCPS.” When Stewart entered the race, Miner wrote that she “will strike up her band of loyal followers who will leave their caves and threaten, demean, bully, and harass anybody who opposes her. We’re not going to take it. And we’ll push back.”
That prompted Saul to issue the tweet below, in which he wrote, “Ryan Miner Pokes Head Out of Ground, sees Laura Stewart Running for BOE, 6 More Weeks of Being a Misogynist Shit Head.”
Miner responded by applying for a peace order against Saul and getting the state to file a misdemeanor harassment charge against Saul on February 20. Saul wrote the following on the Takoma Torch:
At 1:00 a.m. on the morning of February 21, my wife and I woke up to the sound of loud banging. We were terrified. We went downstairs half-dressed and were alarmed to see flashing lights in our driveway and several deputies of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office on our front porch banging on our door. I asked them what they could possibly be doing at this hour, and they said they were there to serve me with a Peace Order that had been filed by a well-known, local political pundit and online troll, Ryan Miner, of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Also, Miner somehow convinced a district court commissioner to approve “criminal harassment” charges he filed against me. My crime? I ridiculed him in a tweet.
Saul characterizes the action of the state as a violation of his First Amendment rights that “has caused me real damages, forcing me to pay thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees to clear my name. It also reinforces the real fear that Miner will continue to harass me and others through the legal system, which he regularly threatens to do to others on social media.”
I asked Miner for comment. On the record, he told me, “Thank you for the opportunity to respond. There is a pending legal matter before the District Court of Montgomery County; it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time. I am committed to resolving this matter in a manner that respects the legal system and all parties involved.”
On one level, this is a quarrel between two well-known people who clearly dislike each other. And it’s not just about them. People have strong feelings about Miner and Saul. Local Twitter feeds erupted yesterday with sentiments similar to the ones shown below and continue to churn at this writing.
Council Member Dawn Luedtke, former Council Member Hans Riemer and school board candidates Bethany Mandel and Laura Stewart weigh in on Twitter.
But it’s more than that. Suppose Saul is right and he is being criminally charged for little more than nasty rhetoric on Twitter. Is that an appropriate use of the criminal justice system? If mean social media posts are treated as crimes, the courts would be so clogged with defendants that they could not adjudicate anything else. Donald Trump by himself could fill up most courthouses.
And so this dispute is not just a fight between a blogger and an online comedian. There are substantial free speech and public policy questions here. Let’s see how the state’s attorney’s office and the courts handle this issue. I suspect a few more shoes will drop before the whole matter is resolved.
Note: I have asked the state’s attorney’s office for comment on this. When the office has responded, I will publish a follow-up.