A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
A bill, LC1105 (PDF), requested by Rep. Matt Montforton (R-Bozeman), but not introduced because of conflicting demands on his time, would have repealed Montana’s criminal defamation statute (MCA 45-8-212). This is one of the laws that David Lenio, the alleged would-be school assassin now residing in the Flathead County Jail, is charged with violating (he’s also charged with malicious intimidation).
As I noted in a post on 21 February, criminal defamation laws have a long and ugly history of being used to suppress criticism of the government. In modern times, they can be dragooned into service as anti-hate speech laws, which may be what’s happening in the Lenio case. And in Montana, I’ve been advised, law enforcement personnel may have used alleged violations of the statute to obtain bogus search warrants. I agree with Monforton. MCA 45-8-212 should be repealed.
MSM are missing a story. In covering the Lenio case, Montana’s news media have focused on Lenio’s alleged threats, his increasingly intense and frequent posts on Twitter, his firearms, and jugs of urine in his automobile. The media have also helped Jonathan Hutson, the man who stumbled on Lenio’s tweets and called the authorities, toot his own horn in a manner I find unseemly. But the media have not focused much attention on the use of the criminal defamation statute. In not looking more closely at the criminal defamation charge, and the use of the statute, I think they’re missing an important story.