The unbearable lightness of being Paul K. Wickre: The Neverending Story

When last we left you in the saga of Paul K. Wickre, he had graduated to leaving threatening voicemails, emails and comments. In fact, Blackfive had picked up on what was happening to us, and tried to give it some publicity. It worked, and they made Paul’s naughty list. Here was the voicemail Paul left on my work machine at the time threatening Blackfive.

Yes, I also laughed at “I’m trying to be reasonable.” Because nothing says “reasonable” like comments such as:

spEAKING AS YOU DO, YOU DESERVE THE WORST. i HAVE 30& OF YOUR ADDRESSES, dONT BE SURPRISED MY THE NEWSPAPERS.
yOU SLIMY FUCKING CUNTS. yOU ARE THE WORST AS TO ADDRESS ME. i WILL FIND YOU.

Having failed in that regard, Paul and his wife Karen decided to file “peace orders” against Jonn. Now, a peace order is a civil hearing wherein basically you have a hearing and if the judge decides to put a “do not contact” order in place he does. It seemed like an unlikely approach as a foray into the legal system, but Paul was attempting an end-around. He added into the claims that he not only wanted “do not contact” orders, but also the blog taken down entirely. (Also he wanted Jonn’s guns taken away, something the hearing didn’t have the power to grant.) I’m really unclear how he thought that would work, but that’s what he asked for. Now, since I was not a named person on that hearing, and because it was never going to work, I decided that it just wasn’t in my best interest to drive halfway across the country for the hearing, especially when my lawyer said he wouldn’t call me to the stand.

And then I came into work to this voicemail from Paul:

(Pay attention to the Google thing, I will be back to that in a minute.)

Anyway, that voicemail sounded an awful like trying to convince me not to come and testify. It sounded like a bully trying to keep me away from the trial. It sounded that way to a lot of other folks as well, including lawyers I consulted who are not on my legal team. So, I got in my car and drove 12 hours to the hearing. (I drive slow.)

After an interminable wait while a series of women were granted peace orders against men who allegedly threatened or beat them (seemed to me that several were bogus sounding) we finally were transferred to our own courtroom with our own judge. Again, the peace orders were by both Paul and Karen separately against Jonn. Our lawyer was there, and Wickre had two lawyers, his civil one and his criminal one. There was also a guy there to watch, who told me later that he had worked with Paul previously and said he’d been a lunatic since he had met him some six years earlier.

Wickre had literally boxes of stuff. The judge took one look at the boxes and said “I really hope that isn’t all for this hearing.” It was probably print outs of every post we’ve written. And they probably would have introduced it into evidence if they got a chance, but the judge limited our case to four hours right off the bat. And he said that the case was so interesting they could do law school classes on it.

Right off the bat though, it went…..interesting. Wickre’s legal team started by dropping all of Paul Wickre’s claims, stating that he was aware that Mr. Wickre was under investigation for various criminal issues. Those were the result of the criminal investigation not only for threats against Jonn and myself, but also my lawyer. About this time three other folks came in on a rotating basis, detectives and bailiffs. They would eventually play a role in the activities that day.

So now it was just Karen Williams (Wickre) against Jonn. The next interesting development was Wickre’s attorney calling me as a witness. My lawyer in turn called Wickre as our witness. So, out into the hall go Wickre and me. Obviously in an attempt (unneeded, but welcome) to keep us from each other, the Montgomery County detective in charge of our cases also came out to maintain the peace. We discussed the Revolutionary War, and specifically his expertise as a brewer of beer from that period. Great guy. A former Marine, and honestly I think a credit to his PD.

When I finally got called in, Wickre’s lawyer started questioning me. His criminal lawyer is really sharp, but he really didn’t understand blogs very well. He didn’t know the difference between bloggers and commenters, didn’t know the difference between a blog post and comments, and really didn’t understand how the interaction works. From his questioning it was clear that they were trying to pin some of the comments on Jonn and I. Most of his questions dealt with our control and editorial process with regards to comments. Stated bluntly: unless you threaten someone, use racial epithets, or put up personal info, we don’t edit our comments. We occasionally block commenters, but never for disagreeing with us, only for cutting/pasting the same nonsense 100 times. The only commenter we’ve banned for reasons other than that was Wickre, and we did so at the behest of his civil lawyer.

Pretty much no harm no foul on any of that. He probably never should have called me, not because I am a good person on the stand, but it allowed my lawyer to just have a field day with asking me to read quotes from Wickre. The judge would later refer to Wickre as “crazy as a June bug” and lamented that Mrs. Wickre would have to deal with him from here out.

After I testified Mrs. Wicke (or Williams I guess more accurately) took the stand and testified. She cried and talked about all the “horrible” things she had read, and then cried some more. She claimed she had never read ANY of the emails Paul had sent to us, including various ones wherein Paul told her to marshal her forces on Capitol Hill to have me fired from my day job. She also testified that Paul had put one of Jonn’s two calls with Wickre on speaker phone, and she claimed she overheard Jonn say he would “kill Paul with a pickaxe.” Naturally Jonn has no memory of this, but so it goes. She shed some more tears, some more statements about how she and Paul were innocent victims, and my lawyer had clearly heard enough of her hysterics and basically let her stand down.

Then Paul got called by our lawyer. He took the stand, gave his name, and then promptly refused to say anything else on account of being investigated for potential criminal issues. Jonn got up and said his piece and that was it.

The judge wasn’t having any of Paul’s attempt to circumvent the First Amendment via a civil “peace order” hearing. There was no way that was happening. So, by any measure of the hearing, they lost. The end result was a peace order granted for Mrs Wickre, but only insofar as Jonn contacting her or her Congressional Office, a result Jonn conceded was fine through our lawyer at the beginning of the hearing. So that was fine with Jonn either way. Note that this does not in any way limit my interactions. Which is why I’ll be filing a FOIA shortly with the House of Representatives to get copies of all emails about TAH, myself, and Jonn with regards to everything that has happened. She claims she never read any of those emails, so it should just be copies of what I already have. Unless of course she really did read and respond to Wickre on those emails, in which case she would have perjured herself. Will let you know when I get those back, but we’ve added to our legal team one of the best FOIA guys in the country. It’s a name that EVERYONE will know, or at least ought to know.

Meanwhile, as the peace order was being ruled on, Paul Wickre was taken into custody by the State of Maryland. They came in, put him in cuffs, and led him out. And then they walked him down the longest hall I’ve ever seen. I was humming the Dr Bruce Banner theme from the Hulk as they led him away, and I had to do it like 20 times. Alas, a bailiff wouldn’t let me take a picture of it.

So, Paul said I would be arrested and led away in cuffs on his voicemail. But, it wasn’t me that that happened to. He promptly bailed out, but it was incredibly cathartic to see him led away.

A few weeks later (mid-November) I received a subpoena for my electronic harassment complaint against Wickre. I talked to some young paralegal who wanted all the evidence from me. Now, bear in mind that they already had access to all of this, including comments Paul had left on the blog. But every time our legal team talked to the detective, we asked them to seize Paul’s computers. The detective was stymied every time he tried to do so. (note the foreshadowing.) The trial was set for December 5.

It is perhaps instructive if we look at the actual elements of the charge, just so you can see how easy a slam-dunk this was. Under Maryland code 3.803 and 3.805:,

§ 3-803. Harassment
(a) Prohibited. — A person may not follow another in or about a public place or maliciously engage in a course of conduct that alarms or seriously annoys the other:

(1) with the intent to harass, alarm, or annoy the other;

(2) after receiving a reasonable warning or request to stop by or on behalf of the other; and

(3) without a legal purpose.

§ 3-805. Misuse of electronic communication or interactive computer service.

(b) Prohibited. —

(1) A person may not maliciously engage in a course of conduct, through the use of electronic communication, that alarms or seriously annoys another:

(i) with the intent to harass, alarm, or annoy the other;

(ii) after receiving a reasonable warning or request to stop by or on behalf of the other; and

(iii) without a legal purpose.

Now, all you need to really prove then is that the person sent harassing emails after being told to stop, and that he had no legal defense or legitimate purpose for having done so. On no fewer than 10 occasions I told him to stop contacting me. I have all those emails. At one point he claimed to be representing himself pro se, and thus his communications to be were mandated by his being his own lawyer. Yeah, no.

So, it was an absolute slam dunk. No way that Montgomery County Assistant State’s Attorney Keith Jacobson (the prosecutor evaluating my claim and our lawyer’s claim for electronic harassment) could screw it up. And so….of course they dropped the charges.

Lest I lose my mind here, I’ll let my lawyer lay out what happened per his conversations with Mr. Jacobson. (Note that when I talked to the prosecutor he gave me a different reason, and then hung up when I said I looked forward to disclosing how I had been treated by him personally and the State of Maryland.) As our lawyer describes:

It appeared from my first interaction with Mr. Jacobson that he had little interest in pursuing the electronic harassment claims. I have dealt with prosecutors at the federal and other levels, and this was the first time one impressed me as appearing to be anti-victim and pro-accused from our very first conversation. He showed little interest in relaying information to or meeting with the victims/complainants (one of whom was me), showed little interest in explaining the situation or process to the victims/complainants, and seemed to be hostile to the idea that a citizen/victim living in his jurisdiction was questioning him about how he was dealing with a criminal complaint. When I asked him what the purpose of the electronic harassment statute was, he told me to “go ask the General Assembly.” When I asked him what, if anything, might qualify as electronic harassment in Maryland, he refused to give an answer. When I asked him what the problem was with the cases, he told me “insufficient evidence,” but would give no more substantive answer. It was very surprising to me that Mr. Jacobson was not willing to let a judge or jury address the merits of our complaints.

So, does that mean it is over? Not even close. Criminal action against Paul is still possible in Indiana and West Virginia. We’re also still talking to the FBI because of the nature of the threats (use of explosives, sawed off shotgun, and hiring hitmen to come and get me.) Additionally, we have a civil suit about to drop against Paul and a few others related to this.

For his part, Wickre has gone back to leaving insane comments on the blog. Including one in which he taunted Jonn for having ALS, and another wherein he said we are all losers in society:

At the end of the day, little Lilyea lives in an inconsequential state, on a dead end cul de sac with three neighbors, in a yellow brick rancher, on $1400 a month of government payments and $300 a month of Google Ad revenue. Inherently poor, with ill health and a finite lifespan with a fatal disease, he spends the last of his days, lashing out at his betters, attacking strangers in twisted thoughts, bent over his PC.

And:

Apparnetly most of you were in the military service, but the lower ranks. Most not college eduacted. Most were trapped by early decisions in life. Collectively, the same as blue collar trades as truck drivers, waitresses, “engineers/janitors in buildings, propane gas route drivers, maybe nurses, own your own business in tree cutting,elevator repairmen, orderlies in hospitals, you know how to operate a truck or a lift truck.

Washed out of society, you have your 10-20 years in for a $1000 pension. WIthout doubt, all your writings have exposed you for what you are…

Now, going back to the Google thing. Wickre keeps claiming in various places that we are somehow doing something illegal to manipulate the Google results. We still have no idea what he is talking about with regards to “Google algorithm manipulation.” But we do know why when you Google “Paul Wickre” the top 4 links take you to This Ain’t Hell. And why #5 is a story about him defending a coworker who took naked pictures of his girlfriend and then mailed them to her. And why the top video from that google is one of the messages left by Paul. It seems someone HAS been Google bombing “Paul Wickre” by searching that name and coming to This Ain’t Hell.

And who was that person? Why, Paul Wickre of course. We haven’t disclosed this previously, but EVERY SINGLE VISIT by Paul was done by first Googling his name, and then coming to us. In fact, our Get Clicky was monitoring every visit by Paul. And every single time he would get here by Googling his own name. Recall that this was the technological genius who knew everything. TAH is your best source for all things Paul according to Google, and it became that way because of Paul himself.

 

 

ONE QUICK NOTE:  Everything you guys comment on gets read.  And Jonn and I have to answer for it, despite the fact we have no control in the marketplace of ideas that is TAH.  I’m not telling you what to write, or what not to write.  But if you actually care how this turns out, consider the implications of your comment before you hit submit.  To be honest, a couple of comments were so over the top that I hated even trying to have to respond to them when challenged in court.  And as Jonn will tell you, he and I even disagree on each others comments from time to time.  I’m just asking you guys to think before you drink comment.  Sooner or later Jonn and I will be in front of a jury, and having to respond to some jackass thing a commenter said won’t help us if it is insane, perverse or threatening.  Granted legally speaking we aren’t accountable for what you write, but a jury might not understand the distinction.

Category: Shitbags