Charlie Kirk
Former police officer spent 37 days in prison because of a meme. Perry County authorities alleged the posts constituted a threat of violence.
A Tennessee man who passed 37 days in prison because of a Facebook post made after a settlement of $835,000 (about 719 thousand euros) with the sheriff responsible for his arrest, his lawyers announced this Wednesday.
The subject, Larry Busharta 61-year-old retired law enforcement officer, had sued Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems, alleging that authorities deliberately misinterpreted a social media post of his as a threat of violence. The charge was eventually dropped, according to , but only after Bushart remained in detention for more than a month, with a bond set at two million dollars.
What Bushart said
The death of the conservative activist, murdered in September during an event at a university in Utah, triggered a strong discussion on social media in the United States, accompanied by resignations, dismissals and a new debate about the limits of freedom of expression.
Bushart was one of the few people, if not the only one, to face a serious criminal charge in connection with publications about Kirk’s death.
In the messages in question, he shared memes that accused Turning Point USA of promoting hate and another that included previous statements by President Donald Trump about the need to “get over” a school shooting.
Perry County authorities alleged that these publications constituted a threat of violence.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech organization that represented Bushart, welcomed the agreement. Adam Steinbaugh, the organization’s senior attorney, said that “no one should be hauled off to jail in the middle of the night over a harmless meme just because authorities disagree with its message.”
Bushart has come out as a combative participant in political discussions on Facebook. After Kirk’s death, he noticed that a Perry County group was organizing a vigil in the activist’s memory and posted several memes, created by others, on the community page advertising the event.
One of those memes quoted Trump after a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, in 2024, when the then-President said: “We have to get through this.” The original post added: “This seems relevant today…”
The sheriff defended his role in the case and maintained that some people in the county interpreted the post as a threat to the local high school. Bushart was accused of recklessly threatening mass violence at a school.
However, body camera footage showed that both Bushart and the officer initially sent to his home appeared perplexed by the sheriff’s request. Bushart denied having threatened anyone and refused to delete the post. Later that night, the police returned and detained him.
In the lawsuit, Bushart’s lawyers said the sheriff’s office ignored requests for access to public documents that sought evidence that someone had interpreted the post as a threat. They also noted that the local school district had no records related to Bushart or the publication.
