A woman has been charged with making defamatory tweets regarding anti-mask nurses who were speaking at a public conference, according to a Michigan sheriff who campaigned for former President Donald Trump.
Deadline According to the Detroit Free Press, Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy is pursuing criminal charges against Kasey Helton of Howell, Michigan, for tweets that made anti-mask campaigners feel “legitimately threatened, harassed, and intimidated.”
Several women who identified themselves as nurses spoke out against school mask policy during a local board of education meeting, prompting Helton’s tweets.
Helton referred to one of the anti-mask nurses as “Nurse E.Coli,” followed by a poop emoji. She also tagged the nurse’s ostensible company, asking if the nurse was actually on their payroll.
Hey Twitter, I’m back. I’d like you to meet Nurse Rebecca Skoczylas, who like Holly Austin also spread misinformation at the Brighton BOE meeting. I’m calling her Nurse E.Coli b/c she’s full of 💩. @stjoes_health I believe she’s on your staff?) (Another 🧵) pic.twitter.com/W9ShXoedOS
— Kasey Helton (@FlummoxedAunt) December 12, 2021
She also described another anti-mask nurse as a “dangerous RN sponsored by Schoolcraft College” a “pathetic purveyor of health misinformation.”
Twitter meet Holly Austin, a pathetic purveyor of health misinformation who works as a nurse educator at Schoolcraft College I am told. 😳 @schoolcraftnow is this your 🗑? @MichiganTea pic.twitter.com/1xuPmd5sDs
— Kasey Helton (@FlummoxedAunt) December 9, 2021
Despite the fact that the tweets contained only personal insults rather than real threats of harm, Sheriff Murphy defended pressing charges.
“If it were just posts disagreeing with something that was said at a public meeting, we would not have done an investigation,” he said. “This, for us, is a test to see where that line is… if they say it rises to the level of criminality. We’ve become uncivilized when it comes to social media and people take potshots at people all day long. OK, there’s freedom of speech, but there’s also lines that need to be drawn in the sand.”
The charges are pursuant to MCL 750.411s, which reads “a person shall not post a message through the use of any medium of communication, including the internet or a computer” if four criteria are met, including that the person has reason to believe “posting the message could cause two or more separate noncontinuous acts of unconsented contact with the victim,” and if it results in “conduct that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested.”
“Frankly I am shocked the LCSD would play a role in this naked attempt to undermine my free speech rights … and silence dissenters of life-threatening public policy measures during a deadly pandemic,” Helton wrote on Twitter.
Frankly I am shocked the LCSD would play a role in this naked attempt to undermine my free speech rights guaranteed by the #FirstAmendment 🇺🇸 and silence dissenters of life threatening public policy measures during a deadly pandemic. Updates to follow!
— Kasey Helton (@FlummoxedAunt) December 14, 2021
Craig Tank, her attorney, said he believes “intelligent minds will prevail.”
“I don’t anticipate that they will charge or they’ll be setting themselves up for a problem as it relates to a civil rights issue and issuing a check on behalf of the folks who pay taxes in Livingston County,” he said. “She’s clearly not harassing or threatening anyone, so what they’re in effect complaining about is politically protected First Amendment speech and you can’t criminalize (that) regardless of how much it may upset you.”
Murphy totally disagrees.
“If it were just posts disagreeing with something that was said at a public meeting, we would not have done an investigation,” he said. “This, for us, is a test to see where that line is … if they say it rises to the level of criminality.
“We’ve become uncivilized when it comes to social media and people take potshots at people all day long. OK, there’s freedom of speech, but there are also lines that need to be drawn in the sand.”
