Missoula’s chief city prosecutor, Keithi Worthington, made her panhandling pitch last week to City Council because there are SO MANY people to prosecute that TWO new prosecutors are needed. To better understand the needs of Missoula’s prosecutorial team, let’s consult some of the slides from last Wednesday’s presentation:
Since the process for issuing Temporary Orders of Protection starts as a civil process–one that requires the petitioner to be a REASONABLE PERSON–prosecutors generally don’t enter the picture until AFTER that “reasonable person” has been awarded legal protection and that protection has been allegedly violated.
For more context, here’s a screenshot from a website that helps people understand how to get this legal protection for themselves (emphasis mine):
That last part about courts being “very reluctant” to limit speech made me LOL. No, that has NOT been my experience.
For a different scenario that has caught national attention, the Lego legal drama playing out in Utah between “corporate” and a YouTuber named “Reckless Ben” is nicely summarized in this Salt Lake Tribune article. For the purpose of this post, here’s where a protection order enters the picture:
Videos posted to Schneider’s YouTube account show multiple confrontations with American Fork police, where Schneider alleges he was attempting to resolve the legal dispute by going to Johnson’s Utah County home. Those visits, Schneider says, were part of a legally required “good faith” effort to fix the problem privately.
In a video, Schneider also pushed a theory that the police officers were protecting Johnson and Best, along with the corporate owners of Bricks & Minifigs, because they all appeared to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Schneider was charged in March with stalking and residential targeted picketing after the interactions at Johnson’s home, court records show. Johnson was also granted a protective order against Schneider on May 20, which requires he not contact Johnson and stay away from his home, according to the filing.
Schneider also faces charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing near a Provo business park, court records show. His next court appearance is scheduled to be held online on June 8 at 11 a.m.
Schneider said in a video that he has fled to Mexico.
While the legal tools to restrain “Reckless Ben” are applicable to what I’m experiencing in Missoula, the situation overall is not comparable because I’m not an outside YouTuber swooping in to stir shit up for clicks with a Mexico escape plan if it gets too hot.
In fact, when it came to a similar attempt by “Anonymous” attempting to hijack the plight of some homeless couple in Missoula for click-farming, I’d like to think my quick response helped run that bullshit off.
You’re welcome, Missoula law enforcement.
To wrap up today’s post I want to include one more slide from Keithi Worthington’s pitch for more municipal enforcers in order to “protect” the reasonable public.
I have a theory about what I think this simple graph shows, and, though it might be totally wrong, I’m going to drop it anyway because it gives me hope.
What I think the catching up of hearings HELD vs. hearings SCHEDULED means is that people are actually FIGHTING BACK and NOT just letting the intimidation tactics go unchallenged by accepting whatever shit plea deal comes down from Worthington’s current stable of prosecutors.
If anyone with a better head for statistics wants to chime in, the comment section is always open (though delayed for new commenters).
Finally, I’m going to keep pitching MY humble panhandling effort for monetary legal support through GoFundMe here, at the end of each post, unless I’m told doing so will send me back to the University of Lawfare. Any little bit helps.
Thanks for reading!
She makes $175k a year, and is appointed by the mayor. Not elected, like a chief prosecutor should be.