Swatting the Constitution with a Sensitive Hand

[XLFD]

The county prosecutor has been caught breaking the law again and denying First Amendment protections to at least four people that likely aren't even living in the state.  Mason County Prosecutor Beth Hand, perhaps best known over the last week for not prosecuting three Ludington Police Department officers for crimes involving DWI and evidence tampering, and for allegedly driving a vehicle into a Lake County ditch in 2022 while drunk and having her husband take the blame, has now decided to use a computer in the commission of a crime, depriving critical comments on her public website from remaining in this open public forum.  

As you can see on the "Beth Hand Mason County Prosecutor" Facebook page, she considers herself a "public figure" and uses her official title as the page title.  When one scrolls down her feed, one sees that she speaks on behalf of the office and doesn't use the page for personal use-- she has her own clearly private page that uses just her name without the title and posts topics not related to her position

A public official identifying herself as a public figure and using her official title for the page and posting messages related solely to her official capacity indicates this has the features consistent of being a public forum under established precedents.  Rather than run those cases, we will allow AI to provide an overview:

That this is a public forum is bolstered by the additional fact that she allows for comments on her posts-- that is, until yesterday.  That's when she decided to throw out some critical comments on her official page arising after a viral Youtube video that came out regarding her abuse of prosecutorial discretion in not charging three Ludington Police Department officers with crimes that seemed well-deserved. 

Before looking at the before and after entries that she edited (this reporter noticed some of the critical comments on the night of February 3, realized she had at that point shut down further comments on some posts, and thus we took screen shots for when/if she decided to silence her critics).  Before looking at a couple of them let's review two cases that went to the Supreme Court in 2024 and the test that arose therefrom.

The Supreme Court in the 2024 cases of Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratliff v. Garnier said that an official government social media account that blocks someone [or a critical comment] is taking state action. The question in those cases was when does an account qualify as a “public” not “private” account.  The court’s answer was that blocking people and/or critical comments in a public official’s social media account is a form of state action when:

1.   They have actual authority to speak on behalf of their office or agency as part of their job.

2.   They are using that authority via the social media account.

The first would come from some official law, regulation or policy, or through ongoing and unchecked use of the account in that fashion.

The second would be based almost entirely on context. Is the account designated as public, or does it have disclaimers as being private? Is it supported by government money or other staff? Are the majority of posts public or private?

Scrolling down the posts of the prosecutor's Facebook page, we see direct and indirect indications that the ongoing posts are under the authority of the prosecutor's office, fulfilling the first part of the test.  The eight posts made this year were placed on weekdays between 8:32 AM and 1:52 PM, meaning that Hand or her staff are putting these posts up during the time they're on the clock, not during their personal time.  While they are mostly reposts of the local media reporting on their prosecutorial successes, all deal with public business related to the office, showing that it passes the second test, if her self-acknowledgment of it being a 'public figure' page didn't. 

Ergo, blocking a commenter would be a state action, as would 'deleting' critical comments.  The latest post (at this time) showed last night that several people viewing the viral video were commenting on the Prosecutor's public site.  This reporter happened to arrive after five people had commented and the office had deactivated the comment feature:

We see that three people had left four comments and that there had been five comments made-- meaning one had already been deleted.  These comments were gracious enough to share a link to the viral video and Dan Freeman offered a fantastic lecture to Beth Hand of how to conduct herself as a responsible and respectful prosecutor.  None of the comments came close to violating Facebook's community standards, any restrictions of the page, nor were any of the comments not protected by the First Amendment.  Here's what's left of that the day after.  

No comments at all.  The First Amendment rights of Cru Jones, Immortan Bob, and Dan Freeman were summarily dismissed by official state action of the Mason County Prosecutor, Beth Hand.  This is a potentially serious offense, possibly leading to a federal case against a county official who doesn't have much respect for the rights of others, or the law for that matter.  For those who think she may have just deleted all comments on her page, critical or not, and did not engage in what is called "viewpoint discrimination", one only has to scroll down to the next post:

You got to like Cru Jones persistence in getting the message across, he posts another link to the video telling one of Beth's fans about her inconsistency of enforcing the law, T-Loc Creed echoes the sentiments further down, both asking questions that we all should have.  That was Tuesday night, but Wednesday morning, what do we see?

Pam Fortin's adulatory comment remains, but the questions/critiques of Cru's and T-Loc's are gone.  The corrupt claw of Beth Hand deleted the zero-star ratings and kept the five-star rating, giving us a false impression of the public's perception of her and her irrational acts.  This is a violation of the state and federal Constitutions and reflects precisely how this reporter has seen her behave in court; in those cases, keeping exculpatory evidence away from the defendants, as she did famously in the Denis Preka case down in Oakland County, where she was formally reprimanded by the judge for her failure to bring discovery and her offering a blatant misrepresentation before the court at a preliminary examination.

The "Crown Counsel" of Mason County appears to be more of a Clown Counsel, endangering the lives of Mason and Lake County residents and visitors back in 2022 by reportedly driving while intoxicated and getting into a one-vehicle accident, committing Brady violations repeatedly in order to get a prosecutorial advantage in the often weak cases she brings before the local courts, and now shutting down her public forum because some voices from outside her bailiwick (that have now had their First Amendment protections violated) berated her or just simply asked why she wasn't doing her job as it should be done.  We should all be asking why this public office is not being accountable, going to her page, and demanding answers before she totally shuts the public out. 

[Freedom Seeker]

..and the hit just keep coming...

One good thing about Hand deleting people's comments on the Prosecutor's official website is that she is getting the message that people know now about her own drunk driving coverup, and how she had the final say in covering up the Ludington cop Austin Mendez' OWI and officers Noble and Babinec tampering with and concealing evidence along with other infractions in the Ludington Police Dept.

Beth-drunk-driving-Hand, throw her husband under the bus-Weigand, evidently got the critical comments, deleted them and is hoping this will all go away by falsely prosecuting the Reporter of this site (for waiting outside the door at city hall while the Council went into an illegally closed session and made people wait outside the building).

I'm very glad to know the nearly half-million comments in a couple of days are getting thru to Ms. crooked-Hand.

Way to monitor her website, X. I wouldn't know the depth of her corruption but for your diligent monitoring and reporting.

[XLFD]

On Wednesday I had a settlement conference for two of the charges against me and fully expected the Hand would be there, but she wasn't; Jason Gerbers the freelance PA was there to represent her.  Made little headway, with Hand offering nothing to deal with over either.  If it goes to trial, it will happen for both in June, but I fully expect at least one motion hearing before that.  

I'm not generally a Trekkie, but I do retain a lot of memories from seeing the original series when it aired and then went into syndication during my childhood; I even collected some paraphernalia.  In many ways, Beth Hand reminds me of the spoiled fop Trellaine in the "Squire of Gothos" episode.  From a very advance race with almost Godlike powers, Trellaine treated the Enterprise crew as if they were toys and acted like an elite brat along the whole episode until he was reigned in at the end by his 'parents'.  Here he is, saying what she might say:

In the show, Spock, with his own advanced intellect moderated with wisdom objected to his intellect without discipline going further and saying:

I see myself as Mr. Spock and her as someone abusing both her intellect and power for her own sundry purposes falling outside her milieu.  At the end of that episode, the squire would slowly fade out as the adults disciplined him, saying "I would have." over and over again.  Even though that's actually set in a fictional place with fictional characters three hundred years in the future, I think history will repeat itself here in Mason County.  

All Trekkiness aside, I was fully blocked from her official website this afternoon and sent an email to the county supervisor and all of the commissioners on the board telling them that she cannot do that without violating the Constitution (the highest law) and threatened legal action against her if she doesn't reverse her actions.  She was also carbon-copied.  I hope the adults do the right thing and tell their errant child that she needs to obey the rules of the game.

[AnxiousGuy]

I don’t think you were individually blocked. The entire page appears to deactivated.

[Freedom Seeker]

Are you able to elaborate on settlement or non-settlement issues, Dr. Spock? I'd be interested to hear. The charges are so ridiculous it's hard to believe they are of this world.

Maybe Close-my-website-down-Prosecutor-Hand took a journey to consult with other-worldly beings because that's what it seems will take to restore her credibility in down-to-earth Mason County.