REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland Hearing on Kimberlin Case UPDATE: Walker Now Released

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UPDATE 6:25 p.m. ET: Sources say that blogger Aaron Walker has been released from custody in Rockville, Maryland. He was charged with “incitement,” but released on his own recognizance. Readers are encouraged to donate to the National Bloggers Club to help support Aaron’s defense against Brett Kimberlin.

*** PREVIOUSLY (11:59 a.m.) ***

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Aaron Walker, whose complaint against convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin became a conservative cause célèbre this past week, was reportedly taken into custody today after a court hearing in Rockville, Maryland.

One person who attended the hearing in Montgomery County District Court said that Kimberlin asserted that Walker’s continued blogging represented a violation of a “peace order” Kimberlin had obtained against the Virginia attorney, who says Kimberlin tried to “frame” him for assault earlier this year.

During the course of the hearing — which reportedly lasted about an hour — Judge C.J. Vaughey appeared to become increasingly hostile toward Walker, who was taken into custody when the hearing concluded.

On Thursday, May 17, Walker published a 28,000-word account of his experience being targeted by Kimberlin, which soon caught the attention of leading figures in online New Media, including University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, who writes the popular Instapundit blog, and bestselling author Michelle Malkin, who warned her readers, “Please remember: Kimberlin is a radical, violent, lying, dangerous felon.”

UPDATE: According to a source, Kimberlin claimed during the hearing that he has received death threats as a result of Walker’s violation of the peace order. In 1981, Kimberlin was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for his crimes, including the 1978 terrorist bombing that brutally maimed Vietnam veteran Carl DeLong.

UPDATE II: A copy of the “final peace order” (time-stamped 10:52 a.m.) states that Kimberlin is “in fear of imminent serious bodily harm” as a result of a “countless number” of death threats, and that “there is clear and convincing evidence that [Walker] is likely to commit a prohibited act in the future against [Kimberlin].”

UPDATE III: To understand what is going on here, please see my column today at The American Spectator:

During his time in federal prison, [Kimberlin] became a prodigious jailhouse lawyer, filing more than 100 actions on his own behalf, and his litigious habits have continued until this day. When Patrick Frey, the blogger known as Patterico, wrote about Kimberlin’s criminal past in 2010, he was immediately threatened with a libel suit. By then, Kimberlin had already sued Seth Allen, who eventually got legal assistance from Aaron Walker, a Virginia attorney who had blogged under the pseudonym “Aaron Worthing.” This evidently made Walker a target of Kimberlin’s harassment tactics, with the result that Walker says both he and his wife lost their jobs. . . .
Kimberlin’s critics say his litigation against Allen and Walker, and threats of action against others, are a type of “lawfare,” which is defined as “the illegitimate use of domestic or international law with the intention of damaging an opponent, winning a public relations victory, financially crippling an opponent, or tying up the opponent’s time so that they cannot pursue other ventures such as running for public office.” And this is part of what many see as a wide-ranging strategy of intimidation waged against conservatives . . .

Read the whole thing. I’m still trying to confirm facts about Walker’s hearing and reported arrest.

UPDATE IV: Just spoke to a source who confirms that witnesses saw Walker led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Ali Akbar, president of the National Bloggers Club, Tweets:

Will know more on Aaron’s situation at 3:30/4:30pm.

The National Bloggers Club has created KimberlinFiles.org to help call attention to the case and to enable “supporters to make financial donations to a relief fund as a show of support.”

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

 

 

THE KIMBERLIN FILES:

 




 

UPDATE V: Welcome Ace of Spades HQ readers!

Now a Memeorandum thread, with links by The Jawa Report, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, Bob Owens, Capitalist Preservation, Legal Insurrection, FilmLadd Blogs, That Mr. G Guy’s Blog and Truth Before Dishonor — thanks!

Michelle Malkin has been absolutely on fire over this.

UPDATE VI: Linked at Twitchy, Popehat, Nice Deb, Sooper Mexican, Darth Chipmunk, Daily Pundit, Andrew J. Patrick, Daley Gator, PJ Tatler and The Camp of the Saints — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE VII: A witness blogs about the hearing:

It went bad for Walker pretty quickly. . . .
Judge Vaughey had read up on the matter, knew Kimberlin’s history of felony convictions, but clearly was technically ignorant of even basic facts about what Twitter is, in one instance point saying “He Googled you 500,000 times” through the Tubes or whatever. The Judge had identified himself, earlier, as being “of the Royal Typewriter Generation,” and at another point, when confronted with the voluminous material from both sides, asked “don’t people have jobs, who reads this stuff?”
That said, Judge Vaughey did know a lot about the kind of respect a Judge is owed. He also, again, knew all about Kimberlin, saying “even a prostitute is entitled to protection.”
And Walker pissed him off. So did Kimberlin, but Walker identified himself as a Yale-trained lawyer, albeit one who was representing himself. Kimberlin made any number of allegations — essentially, everything that was said about his side -– issuing death threats, harming business interests, summoning SWAT teams to the home–was said by Kimberlin to have been done by Walker’s side.
The pair went back and forth, back and forth, with Walker getting increasingly flustered, and the Judge finally asking, “what did they tell you in Yale Law School about interrupting a judge?”

My own source who was on the scene said of Judge Vaughey: “He couldn’t find the Internet to save his life.”

 

280 comments

  1. Oh no.

    Why don’t the courts in Maryland understand this case?  Why won’t the authorities pay attention?  Brett filed false charges on Aaron and he’s walking free?  Aaron blogs the truth about a public figure, from outside Maryland I might add, and Maryland takes him into custody?

    I’m honestly shocked.  Again.

  3. Hilarious.  the diaper filler is now in jail for terrorising the terrorists. i know we can expect outrage from Michell Malkin of these terroristic threats by Walker….LOL

  4. Brett’s claim of harassment was not taken seriously last time, because what he cited was simply truthful speech.

    My guess (I am not sure) is that all these annoying new commenters I’ve never heard of, talking on a few blogs about retaliating against Brett or posting his address, were astroturf meant to better satisfy the ‘alarm’ aspect of harassment.

    Then they simply claimed Aaron was coordinating this harassment.  Lee Stranahan should be concerned, as he and Malkin led the way on everyone blog about Brett day.

    Of course, this is unfair to them and they never coordinated harassment or threats or anything like that.  They asked people to research and blog accurately.

    Sigh.  Does MD have any real evidence that Aaron personally left any harassment or coordinated anything like that?  Did MD overturn the first amendment?

  8. Wait, I thought that the Supreme Court had ruled that bloggers are not responsible for what others say?  How is it Aaron Walker’s fault if others behaved stupidly(tm President Obama)?

  11. THIS.IS.AN.OUTRAGE!

    I don’t think there is more evidence we need to show that too many judges are scoff laws. The Judge has now made himself a criminal.

    Many years ago, G. Gordon Liddy said that country was at war with itself. Conservatives wanted to think the war ended with Watergate. It was just beginning.

  14. Aaron Walker First Casualty Of War On #BrettKimberlin…

    From an undisclosed location, Stacy McCain reports that Aaron Walker was taken into custody immediately after his court hearing today in his legal battle with Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin; FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION Aaron Walker, whose complaint again…

  17. There is no justice in Maryland, it seems.  Which is probably why Stacy isn’t there any more.
     

  20.  That about sums it up.

    If MD lets proven perjurers go, Brett can just walk in with astroturfing Neal at his side and claim whatever they want.

    They can lie about anyone, and MD will let them.  Since Aaron won’t lie to the court, he is at a severe disadvantage in a court that rewards perjury instead of punishing it.

  23. Has contact information on the judge been available? If people were calling/emailing him and his office about this case he might have been pissed off and looking for an excuse.

  27. ” [Walker] is likely to commit a prohibited act in the future against [Kimberlin]” Jailed for committing Free Speech. Time to get the best 1A lawyer money can buy. Time to donate.

  28. Bail? Lets get Aaron out first, then start laying plans for the next offensive. You’re correct, we are at war with the government and judiciary of the corrupt and complicit oligarchs.  Follow the money. Keep blogging, keep speaking out. I will not be silenced except by death.

  30. ah, the date on the page seemed to reference today’s hearing, but that makes more sense.

  31. Wow, I’m sorry to hear of this unfortunate turn of events.

    While I very much want to know exactly what happened and how it was that the judge weighed his decision, [For example, was Mr. Walker taken into custody for violating the order or did he represent himself again and goad the judge into holding him for contempt?], I hope his supporters and [please, Lord, someone hire this man an attorney] legal advisers are able to bond him out and help him convince the MD courts that Kimberlin is dangerous, harassing, and abusive of process.

    Was Mr. Walker representing himself again today? Sometimes when a person advocates for their own self, there is a great temptation to be overly zealous. I could understand that a judge looking at a self-representing defendant who was becoming increasing agitated and frustrated in his own defense could then believe that such a person would have trouble obeying a no contact order. Was there no concerned council available to sit with Mr. Walker and keep the hearing on a even keel?

  32. having read the order, it says nothing about the defendent (walker) being denied the right to mention the petitioner (kimberlin) in any future blogs, so if he continues to blog about him, it wouldn’t  be in violation of the order, not that that will stop Kimberlin from claiming it does. O.o

  35. I’m confused by update #3.  I assumed that Stacy McCain was actually in the courtroom as all this went down.  Since Stacy has been using this story to cement his “working reporter” reputation I simply assumed he’d be there covering the story he made himself a part of last week.

    If Stacy wasn’t there I’d like to know why he wasn’t.

  38. The law is being used by radicals and there are judges who are as much a part of the problem as people like Kimberlin who should have gotten the death penalty and been executed 20 years ago! So, start using the law against the vermin!

  40. Aarron needed a lawer,  to stick to law.   MD law bars prohibition ov protected speech in peace order.   Not responsible  for speech o f others, either.

  43. How can the blogburst be harassment when it’s clearly FREE SPEECH and TELLING THE FACTS?

    Did any of these bloggers contact Kimberlin or his minions directly?  Now THAT could be construed as harassment.  But blogging on the internet?  No way.

    I hope this kind of asinine, speech-stifling crap goes the way of Righthaven.

  44. Wondering how many are considering filing similar Peace Orders?  There is enough evidence to support doing so, right?

    Awful hard to sue if you are the recipient of multiple orders filed against you.  Play his game your way…

  45.  I’m neither new here nor am I unaware that Walker is an attorney. He is under serious attack, and as an attorney he might have anticipated that his expertise might not serve his defense best. As I noted, defending one’s own self can be a trap, since being zealous in your own defense might just make you look, well, overly zealous. Asking if he has supporting council isn’t an ignorant, off-the wall question.

    Plus, this guy has had a bad enough day without me pointing out the adage about fools and hiring yourself as an attorney. 

  46.  WS,

         Believe he is aware that Walker is an attorney. Doesn’t matter. As a wise man observed “An attorney who represents himself has a fool for a client.” Since none of us were present for the proceedings, I think Mr. Wilson was attempting to understand what could lead the judge to rule as he did. We can all speculate that the judge is a goofy liberal or whatever, but as of right now we don’t know what really happened there.

  49. Does the judge have ties to the same groups as Kimberlin?  If he does…I think the judge knows that he would be in serious trouble with the law when the connections are  made.  I understand that Walker’s position is dire since he no longer has a job due to numbnuts and he is unable to hire an attorney. 

  50. Get the IP … I think it might match with some of the ones on my blog that are moderated … and have implied bodily harm and death to my wife and I …

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