Indiana - This Dad Went To Prison For Trashing A Judge On His Blog, And He's Still Trying To Clear His Name

When my divorce started and the Guardian ad litem had started to show her intentions I remember coming across a posting on Dan Brewington. He is in the news again after serving 2.5 years in prison because of a free speech dispute.

Yahoo! News

 The Supreme Court recently heard a free speech dispute over a 27-year-old's angry Facebook rants, and now another guy is asking the justices to weigh in on whether his vitriolic blog posts deserve First Amendment protection.

That blogger, Dan Brewington, filed a petition in October asking the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction of violating an Indiana law against "intimidation" for writing highly unflattering blog posts about the judge  who sided against him in a custody battle.

Perhaps the worst thing in those blog posts was the repeated claim that Judge James D. Humphrey was a "child abuser," and here is how Brewington justified that claim to me: "He was taking away children from capable parents."

Brewington, now 41, already served two and a half years in prison for allegedly communicating threats to Humphrey. While he's already done his time, on Jan. 9 the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear his case and potentially overturn his conviction and clear his name.

"I've never been in trouble. I'm a friendly guy. I'm known around the neighborhood for volunteering," Brewington, who does computer-aided design from home, told me over the phone. "I don't know why they spent that much time coming after me."

Full story: Yahoo! News

Related news:
Dan's Adventures in Taking on the Family Courts

2013-02-26 USA Today - Indiana high court asked to review jailed blogger case

2013-09-25 TIL - Brewington case focuses First Amendment attention on Indiana

2014-08-07 EC 99.3 - Ind. Supreme Court Won’t Rehear Brewington Appeal

Connecticut: Mark Dubois: Anti-GAL Crowd Gives Rules Committee An Earful

The comments offer more insight than the writer who takes writes form the perspective of many lawyers. That parents/ consumers are "sour grapes" and that the divorce industry, GALs and judges are being bashed - we just don't understand as parents/ consumers......

The Connecticut Law Tribune

If what I saw the other day at the Rules Committee hearing on proposed Practice Book changes is any indication, the Judicial Branch (and all of us) are in for a rough year ahead.

For those who have never attended a Rules Committee hearing, it is commonly believed that things are pretty well set by the time they get to hearing stage and, absent some major upset or error, what has been proposed will be recommended to the judges for adoption after a pro forma airing. That was not to be the case this time, however.

I knew something was up when I uncharacteristically arrived a half-hour early and found a line of folks signing up to testify stretching out of the Supreme Court courtroom into the foyer. One of them was clearly their manager, as he walked back and forth giving advice on how to sign up anonymously and how some folks might want to pool their time to make a longer argument. I rightly guessed that this bunch were from the anti-GAL/AMC crowd, but I had no idea what was to follow.

Full story: The Connecticut Law Tribune

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