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

  2. My memeorandum links to this article (when you posted that link) were prior to this event.  I am busily updating, updating, updating.

    Everyone must check out my “permissions declaration” as I believe it is very important!  I got permission from Aaron Worthing to republish all of his Kimberlin articles, and I have subsequently given permission to absolutely everyone to republish all of Truth Before Dishonor’s Kimberlin articles.  That means if you republish a TBD republished article, and link to the TBD republished article, you are not in violation of any copyright laws, nor does Aaron Worthing have authority to force you to take them down (if a Judge forces Aaron to take down any of his articles, in violation of the First Amendment).

    I strongly urge all bloggers to reblog all my TBD republishes of Aaron Worthing articles regarding Brett Kimberlin.  Brett does not want this information to get out, so go to TBD and scan through the past 2 weeks’ worth of articles and republish every Kimberlin article TBD republished from Aaron Worthing!

    Don’t let a Maryland Judge, unbound by the US Constitution and the First Amendment, win!  Don’t let Brett Kimberlin win!

    There is no copyright infringement in quoting in their entirety any TBD article regarding Brett Kimberlin!  And the First Amendment still reigns supreme in the US!

    http://truthbeforedishonor.wordpress.com

  3. Respondent has to stay away from the petitioner’s place of employment regardless of where that place is. Otherwise if a petitioner left his job at Loon Resort he wouldn’t be protected at his new job at Kookooberry Canning.

  4. After looking at other websites, including Legal Insurrection, it looks as though Walker/Worthing fell into the trap that many lawyers fall into when dealing with a pro se (self represented) plaintiff: he got into a pissing match with the guy, and then ended up devolving into micro-arguments about minutiae, which ended up pissing off the judge, who appears to be from an older generation.  

    Those of us that aren’t fans of this Kimberlin fellow have to recognize that the judge that sat today didn’t care one wit about the ‘tubes, or “TweeterFace”, or “GoogleBook”, because the technology is irrelevant to the base allegations that Kimberlin made in his petition/complaint.  The judge also didn’t give a fat rat’s ass about Kimberlin past because Walker/Worthing (apparently) gave the judge no reason to get to the credibility of the witnesses before him. Based upon the reporting that we are reading, Walker/Worthing apparently decided that he needed to rebut everything that was before the judge as it was being said, which only served to make the judge more-and-more angry.  I’d also wager that if the Judge isn’t a Yale grad, he probably didn’t appreciate some whipper-snapper mouthing off about being a Yale trained lawyer.  When a judge asks a lawyer whether he knows how he’s supposed to act in front of a judge, that’s a problem.

    Kimberlin (apparently) claimed that Walker/Worthing engaged in activities that led Kimberlin to fear for his life and/or safety.  The first step that was before the court was what it was that Kimberlin claimed that Walker/Worthing did to have those fears.  The second step was to tie what Walker/Worthing allegedly did to the actions of others (i.e., was Walker/Worthing inciting or soliciting violence?) 

    Walker/Worthing should have sat down, and shut up, and let Kimberlin make his case, all the while taking notes.  Walker/Worthing then should have identified each alleged act that Kimberlin claim, and then, starting with the first alleged act, cross examined Kimberlin, showing him to have been foolish or mendacious.  Thereafter, he should have repeated this process until the judge gave him a signal that he understood the point.  Once that was done, Walker/Worthing would have been far more likely to convince the judge that Kimberlin’s past was relevant to the instant matter.

    Being led away in cuffs (as apparently happened in this case) is rare, and most judge’s don’t do it unless you’ve really made the judge angry by acting like a fool.  Judge’s, especially older judge’s, expect lawyers to be ladies and gentlemen, to come prepared to court with short, and uncomplicated arguments, and to, above all else, HAVE A POINT.  Simply rambling on trying to explain every jot-and-tittle, instead of  bringing focus and clarity to the judge is a one-way ticket to defeat.  If a lawyer then complicates things by mouthing off to the judge after the judge has made a decision against the lawyer is what gets the lawyer locked up for contempt of court.

    Unless this judge is a lunatic, there’s every reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Let’s give this time to get all relevant information.  In the meantime: Never, EVER, represent yourself in court-EVER.  It makes no difference if you attended Yale or a bottom of the barrel school, only fools go into court on their own behalves.  

  5. Our side has right on it’s side so we don’t have to stoop to things like that. After all it’s much more important to be better than they are rather than better at it than they are. Working splendidly so far isn’t it.

  6. With respect to an earlier commenter, we are at this point precisely because we have “dialed back” our expression of outrage. The divisions of government established to preserve our freedoms are now actively opposing us, and by “us” I mean those of us who work, keep our noses clean, and strive to maintain a civil and productive society.

    Just how far up the chain of command do Kimberlin’s protectors go?

    I’ve been quiet for a long time, but that’s no longer acceptable.

  10. I just learned of this Kimberlin character in the last week. The guy has a huge problem, but apparently is more credible than honest people. I think the best thing to do is stay away from crazy people. You can be right, but you might be dead right.

    Another thing, there are lots more interesting subjects to blog about than some goofy, minor league liberal. Why in the world did this whole mess start? Why blog about this jerk, anyway. 

    Sorry I don’t know the history, but right now that’s the way I feel.

  12.  I agree, staying away from crazy people makes them miraculously go away…it worked in Germany that’s for sure.

    I personally believe crazy people should go where all crazy people go…insane asylums…do we have those anymore?

  13.  No, we are at this point because the stuff that needed doing other than expressing outrage never got done. Too many people think expressing outrage in a comment thread is enough to make things happen.

  14.  They certainly have hospitals for the criminally insane which, judging from what I’ve read of his verified history, is where Kimberlin probably needs to be.

  16. Sorry I don’t know the history

    And that history is so hard to run down and learn about! I mean, it’s not as if Stacy has linked to EVERY SINGLE POST HE’S WRITTEN ABOUT KIMBERLIN in this post, as well as posting links to related posts on other blogs in most of his own posts on the subject.

  17. You need to learn the history. The guy is a sociopath, not a “goofy minor league liberal.” And if he gets away with this shit, other people will think they can do it.

  19. You don’t know that he was arrested for contempt.  Being an a$$ is usually not the reason people are jailed; there are A LOT of people in court, both represented and not, who are a$$es.

  23. This is just a guess, but so far, it’s looking to me like AW was taken into custody on Contempt of Court charges for interrupting and irritating the judge. Not because he was found guilty of anything. 

    I have no idea why the judge would be on this case if he doesn’t know anything about the internet, especially as it’s a case largely about the internet, but I digress. It’s irrelevant. He was on the case.

    AW made a mistake in representing himself. He was too emotionally vested in this. It doesn’t make it right, but I think that by doing so, he allowed Kimberlin to set the rules of the game they would play by, and was able to kind of “trap” AW into arguing with him as though at the dinner table or anywhere but in a court room.

    I think Kimberlin is a vile, disgusting, deplorable human being, but one thing I do not think he is, is stupid.

    What happened to the lawyer that he had hired who helped him out with the peace order case back in April? Had AW run out of money or something? Why would he represent himself when he said he thought it was a mistake to do so in his 28000 word post(s)? 

  27. WTF was Walker doing up there pro se?  That’s not smart kid stupid, that’s just plain stupid.

  28.  It’s not the judge’s job to be “up on” Twitter and Facebook and My Little Pony.  That’s what lawyers are there for, to present evidence.

    Spending an hour-long hearing continually interrupting a judge is a safe ticket to jail.  Aaron needed an attorney.

  29. IIRC , he was a snitch for the DEA – which no doubt is why he was placed in solitary while in prison.

  30. Not to make light of a serious situation, but The thing that I find most shocking about this is that Stacy McCain is supporting a graduate of Yale Law School (He’ll have to add one name to his very small list of Ivy leaguers who he doesn’t find entirely useless)

  31.  Yup – not showing up for the hearing on the temporary order is a tactical mistake, because the burden shifts to you to show it is unduly burdensome or unnecessary.

    Blaming the judge is just nonsense.  From the witness description (someone on our side), Aaron was continually interrupting the judge and allowing himself to get sidetracked by BK, which is another reason no sane lawyer represents himself in any matter where he has a personal interest.

  32.  None of which was apparently in evidence in this case.  The judge was apparently aware of BK’s background when he said, “Prostitutes deserve protection, too.”

  33. It’s really not. Lots of folks are threatened with jail for contempt, very few actually receive it.  He may lose his case that way, but the arrest would be unusual.  Bet he was arrested for something else.

  34. […] According to Stacy McCain’s sources, Aaron Walker was led out of the Montgomery County Court H…, for what the judge in the case determined to be a violation of a peace order obtained against him by convicted domestic terrorist and perjurer Brett Kimberlin. According to Kimberlin, he has received a large number of death threats as a direct result of Walker’s blogging about Kimberlin’s threats to Seth Allen and himself, some of which led to Walker and his wife both losing their jobs, to say nothing of the Kimberlin supporters who have used SWATting against Patterico, Erick Erickson and others. […]

  35.  There was another case in this County last year where failure to grant a Peace Order was blamed for a violent attack (not that a PO or RO has ever really stopped someone bent on violence), so the courts there are very sensitive.  Aaron failed to contest it in the first hearing, putting himself in a hole for the second, then he represented himself.

    It seems he did a bang-up job of it, too, since he ended up in handcuffs.

  36.  Kimberlin has vast experience being the plaintiff in such actions.  Until and unless he is designated a vexatious litigant, he isn’t risking anything.

  38.  He was paroled in the early ’90s, sent back for violating parole, then finally released in 2001.  We do not apply current law going backwards – the Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws.

  40.  Aaron had plenty of time to arrange for legal help.  Ali’s fundraising just began, but he could have found someone licensed in Maryland to help him and at least defer the billing a bit.  He apparently made the typical mistake of lawyers who represent themselves, assuming the case was a slam dunk because he is in the right.

    Of all people, a lawyer should understand the system doesn’t work that way.

  41.  I was thinking in a context much larger than a mere comment thread. I’m tired of being nice. Outrage in itself is impotent but it can be channeled into productive action, which seems to be the same thing you’re saying.

    Perhaps to sum it up better, I feel we’re at the point where we either stand up to this crap and set things straight or submit like the obedient peasants the leftists want us to be.

  42. “pro se” is irrelevant.  The petitioner offered a) no proof of death threats and b) no proof that said threats, if any, came from AW.  We do not live in a society where the accused carried the burden of proof.  This is so FUBAR it’s amazing.

  43. I was worried over the weekend that this might happen if he decided to represent himself.  His recent postings clearly show that the stress of the situation was starting to take it’s toll on him [I wouldn’t have lasted this long].

  44. This is a surreal nightmare.   Is this judge so crazy or senile that Brett Kimberlin can just walk in, make stuff up and get someone arrested?

    God help us if that’s the state of  the legal system in America.

  46. I donated to your legal defense fund.  May Kimberlin lose everything for what he’s done to you, Aaron, Seth, Patterico, et al.  I’d much prefer he get a hefty jail term, however…

  47.  So what?  As an old friend who was a Colonel on the Virginia State Police liked to say when, as a patrol officer, speeders complained that others got away, “When you go fishing, do you catch them all?”

    Whether he was arrested for contempt or for violating the order, he certainly didn’t help himself at all by aggravating the judge the way he apparently did.  These reports are NOT from BK’s peeps, they came from people sympathetic to Aaron.

  48.  @twitter-346604691:disqus “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.”

    I’d say you’ve likely nailed it. Now, how to prove it….?

  49.  And well-researched materials from Patterico, Stranahan, Vaduum, Ace, and many others as well. 

    Those who aren’t interested can 1) not read them and 2) not comment on them.  Easy enough, eh?

  50.  The “goofy, minor league liberal” is inexplicably out of jail despite being convicted of multiple felonies including bombings, is ruining people’s lives, threatening innocent citizens, and apparently doing it all with the consent and support of judges, elected officials, and some of Hollywood’s elites.

    “Sorry I don’t know the history, but right now that’s the way I feel” will get people killed in the real world.

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