Here’s the TKPOTD from five years ago today. I’ve got some further comments about The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin’s absurd stalking claim further below.

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This is from paragraph 30 of The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin’s frivolous Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. lawsuit that he’s filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland.

Brett Kimberlin is a public figure, and any court case involving him is a legitimate news story. A blogger’s attendance at an open court hearing in order to cover such a story is protected by the freedom of the press clause of First Amendment. Furthermore, in order to stalk someone in Maryland … oh, I’ll let the statute explain itself …

Md. CRIMINAL LAW Code Ann. § 3-802

(a) “Stalking” defined. — In this section, “stalking” means a malicious course of conduct that includes approaching or pursuing another where the person intends to place or knows or reasonably should have known the conduct would place another in reasonable fear:
(1) (i) of serious bodily injury;
(ii) of an assault in any degree;
(iii) of rape or sexual offense as defined by §§ 3-303 through 3-308 of this title or attempted rape or sexual offense in any degree;
(iv) of false imprisonment; or
(v) of death; or
(2) that a third person likely will suffer any of the acts listed in item (1) of this subsection.

(b) Applicability. — The provisions of this section do not apply to conduct that is:(1) performed to ensure compliance with a court order;
(2) performed to carry out a specific lawful commercial purpose; or
(3) authorized, required, or protected by local, State, or federal law.

So what TDPK is alleging is that my being in the same courthouse as he was, surrounded by bailiffs, deputy sheriffs, county police, and state troopers, put him in fear of serious bodily injury, assault, rape, false imprisonment, or death—or made him fear for some third party’s safety. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that only a compulsive liar could say that with a straight face.

But let’s pretend that he really was frightened by my being at the courthouse. As the judges have told him, I had a right under state law to be present at open court hearings. There is also the protection offered by First Amendment, but Brett Kimberlin has shown over and over again that his is no friend of the freedoms of speech or of the press.

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For some reason, the judge who presided at the hearing on motions to dismiss the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. LOLsuit failed to dismiss the stalking count. She should have because stalking isn’t a cause of action for a civil suit in Maryland. Indeed, stalking not being a tort was the ground that the judge who presided at the hearing on motions for summary judgment threw out the claim at that point.

Shining the light on certain vermin will usually make them scurry away into hiding. Not all of them can make to cover, and some of the ones who can’t will try to extraordinary means to punish those who tell the truth.