Guest Post
SquirrelRanger sent a post this morning I want to share with you. My anger at Jerry Fallwell Jr and Sr causes my hands to shake when I type.
On the subject of the warrants that Jerry Falwell, Jr., has issued for the New York Times staffers who were alleged to have trespassed at Liberty University (as I think I understand it, at the invitation of a student there, so as to do a coronavirus story, with photos):
Reports now (today) are that the warrants were signed by a “magistrate,” Kang Lee. So says ABC News:
That would be Kang Hwan Lee of District 24 in Virginia’s Magisterial Region 2.
Well, first of all, as at least one commenter at the bottom of the RawStory.com article has pointed out, the two Kang Hwan Lee signatures on the two warrants are very different from one another. Look for yourself.
And then, second of all, Wikipedia says, as regards managerial districts in Virginia, “Magisterial districts are defined by the United States Census Bureau as a minor civil division that is a nonfunctioning subdivision used in conducting elections or recording land ownership, and are not governments.”
So yesterday the issue was that the police officer who signed the warrants was (an in-house) Liberty University policeman, not a policeman from the city or county. Well, maybe that distinction’s not important. But now the “magistrate,” who I didn’t see identified in the articles I looked at yesterday, turns out to be a non-judge.
From which it looks to me that Falwell and university have been trying to make their action against the alleged New York Times trespassers look like there’s an officialdom to it, city or county or state law enforcement and judiciary…when there’s not that ring to it. And so far it doesn’t look like the media is calling them on the point. ABC, for instance, seems to be going along with the “magistrate” lingo as if it were an honest-to-goodness judge, when that’s not the case.
TheoCops.
You’ll be seeing more of them.
Happy Good Friday.
1Lee is a Virginia magistrate, which means he does have the authority to issue an arrest warrant in connection with a request brought by local law enforcement. The business about the signatures not matching, however, does sound quite fishy, which is pretty much par for the course for Jerry Falwell, Jr.
2I don’t know diddly about Virginia law. Where I live, warrants are usually signed by a Magistrate (also TPOs and commitments).
But those signatures are laughably different.
3Fake news distributed by these charlatans is bad enough. But fake police, judges, magistrates? I guess they figure, why not, the pile of BS is more than 7 feet deep already. If our supporters haven’t drown in it yet, let’s keep piling it on.
4But – – but – – bearing false witness and breaking the law in the name of Jesus is perfectly OK! Everybody knows that. Right? Right?
5Well, it would be kind of interesting to see what happens if those two staffers showed up and ‘got arrested’. I wonder if that would then (1) blow up the story to a national story, (2) allow a path to litigation and discovery that is not currently open, (3) provide more popcorn worthy entertainment for these dark times.
6I remember seeing Jerry Sr weeping inconsolably on TV after New Orleans cops busted him with a hooker. Crying and weeping and sobbing, saying “I have sinned against you. Please forgive me.” And the sheep forgave him. Then a couple months later he got busted out in California again for the same thing.
7Sounds like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“Never get into a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel” has been updated to “Never get into a fight with somebody who buys bandwidth by the terabyte.”
Fortunately, the NYT has access to some real “white shoe” lawyers and Ol’ Jerry may find himself living in a cardboard box in Brooklyn, if he keeps this crap up.
8My adopted state baffles me, sometimes.
I think maybe Virginia does not like being purple. When I moved here, it was mostly red.
Actually, *everything* baffles me these days.
About me: I’m originally from Pennsyltucky and consider myself a Delawarean though I’ve lived in Virginia far longer than either of those places.
9A fake education place with a fake warrant is every bit as ‘good’ as a degree from Trump U.
10whatever warrants are getting served should be going TO falwell, not from him.
11I would love to know if anyone out there knows when the majority of funds are donated to churches. Is that why Easter “has” to be in person?
SO!!! We have gone from WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) to WMSU (We Make Scat Up). But what’s new coming from a Falwell…
12Your link to Ballotpedia says Kang Hwan Lee is a magistrate for District 24 of the Magisterial Region 2 in Virginia. The magistrate link says “The Virginia Magistrates provide an independent, unbiased review of complaints of criminal conduct brought to the office by law enforcement or the general public. Magistrate duties also include issuing various types of processes such as arrest warrants, summonses, bonds, search warrants, subpoenas, and certain civil warrants. Magistrates also conduct bail hearings in instances in which an individual is arrested on a warrant charging him or her with a criminal offense.” Just saying.
That being said, one or both of the signatures are forgeries.
13@pipeline pig
14That was Jimmy Swaggart who blubbered on TV that he had sinned against God, etc.
Hadn’t heard about him in a while, so checked Google and he is still alive.
I would love to see these money grubbing charlatans in handcuffs and prison garb.
15But I am willing to bet that this is a source of subpoena’s and warrents that barr would bend over backwards to enforce and the raft of “unqualified” judges now on the bench would grant “standing” to and to add the cherry on the top that the dishonorable tolen partisan majority of the scotus would deem “Constititional”.
16@Austinhatlady, #13: I get confused with all those TV preachers who got caught. I just remember Jim Bakker^ because of his wife, and the scary shirts showing “mascara stains running from the tears”. I mean, the doghouse AC might’ve gone on the fritz while she was away…
^ And would you believe it!!! He’s huckstering colloidal silver as a cure for Covid-19!!!
17https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bakker#Coronavirus_controversies
@Old Fart
18My first awareness of the Bakkers was thru an SNL skit that I thought was wildly over the top. Then I ran across an actual performance, and was shocked at how spot-on the SNL depiction was!
I’d caught a glimpse of one of Jim Bakker’s presentations about colloidal silver. Scary.
Here’s a 20 second distillation on how this legal maneuver works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efgLHgsBmM
It was probably filmed not far from Liberty U.
19WWJD? Prosecute!
20Is it wrong that I was glad to see the girl from Liberty “University” lose today on “Jeopardy”?
No bible questions.
21You want anger
22How about the Coronavirus bill being used to pay for scammers salaries and to pay utilities for monumente to angoing delusions and scams.
Churches declared businesses under the $2 Trillion bill and qualify for welfare to pay for pastors, utilities etc.
Meanwhile doctors, nurses, grocerie clerks etc. are dying for lack of prope PPE’s while funds are siphoned off to these monuments of ignorance, bigotry and greed.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2020/04/trump-administration-using-relief-funds-to-bail-out-churches-pay-pastor-salaries/
IF churches are “businesses” does that mean they are taxable?
23No these delusional self entitled free loaders don’t beleive they have any civic responsibility except to grab as much free money and services as they can while railing against the evils of government that is lining their pockets
24it turns out that VA does have rules/regulations, regarding the issuance of criminal warrants. it turns out as well that, no matter how badly the warrant is put together, there are no automatic grounds for having it quashed, making all those rules/regulations moot on their face.
this means anyone can issue a criminal warrant in VA, and it is considered valid/enforceable. whether a prosecutor would act on it is another matter entirely.
25“this means anyone can issue a criminal warrant in VA, and it is considered valid/enforceable. whether a prosecutor would act on it is another matter entirely.”
So how is this different from the “subpoena’s” and other “legal” documents issued by the “soveriegn Citizen” lunacy of past history?
26Sadly bill barr will enforce it if he can dream up some fanciful way to claim jurisdiction.