MI- Judge to annoying Web-poster: Go to jail

Interesting free speech issues found here.

12-11-2008 Michigan:

But now he says he may have gone too far; hearing is today

On third thought, Wayne County Probate Judge David Szymanski has concluded maybe it wasn't a great idea to jail a woman for writing about her court case on a Web site.

Twice Monday, Szymanski jailed Diane Anderson over the Web site and ordered the site to be “shut down immediately.”

“Yes, I was going to keep her in jail until the Web site was shut down,” Szymanski admitted Wednesday. He said he acted out of frustration with Anderson's argumentative behavior.

Now, with yet another hearing on the matter set for this morning, he concedes he may gone too far. “I needed some more time to think about it,” Szymanski said in an interview.

The site — www.davidcarlandersonandelderabuse.com — which contains commentaries on the case and Anderson's family, was disabled Wednesday, but Anderson said she's not surrendering. “I'm not afraid to fight,” she said. “But it's hard to fight from a jail cell.”

Len Niehoff, a University of Michigan law professor and First Amendment expert, said Szymanski's order to close the site clearly violates Anderson's free-speech rights. “Shutting down a Web site is unconstitutional prior restraint,” Niehoff said.

Paul Fischer, executive director of the state Judicial Tenure Commission, declined comment when informed about the episode Wednesday: “I do not comment on any matters that may or may not be before us.”

Szymanski jailed Anderson, 59, twice Monday after she refused to shutter the site, which she has used as a pulpit in her tangled battle with her brother over the care of their elderly mother. The battle has extended to the mother's ailing, 17-year-old cat, Toupee (who has his own, first-person column on the Web site).

The issue erupted as the siblings argued over how much rent Anderson should pay to live in her mother's Lathrup Village home. During the hearing, her brother, David Anderson, complained the Web site defamed him.

David Anderson, a lawyer, declined to comment beyond saying Szymanski has been “totally fair to all the parties.”

The case, which began in Oakland County, was transferred to Wayne because David Anderson's wife, Martha, sits on Oakland's Circuit Court.

Szymanski said he was frustrated by what he sees as Diane Anderson's excessively argumentative style in the case

“She is not willing to accept rulings and she continues to argue,” he said. “I warned her four or five times.”

The first jailing Monday — for about an hour in a lockup in Detroit's Coleman A. Young Municipal Center — was accompanied by the judge's hand-written order “that the… website referring to this case shall be shut down immediately. Diane Anderson shall be held in the Wayne Co. jail until the website is shut down.”

She was brought back to court but soon was jailed again for about three hours.

She was released Monday afternoon pending this morning's hearing. The judge wouldn't say what he would do today, but he said free-speech advocates will be pleased by his decision.

The lesson, said Szymanski, is that while he has a gavel, he has to take his raps as well.

“If a judge can't take it,” Szymanski said, “he should find another profession.” ..News Source.. by JOE SWICKARD • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER