A true crime podcaster convicted of felony intimidation for attacking the reputations of Norwalk, Ohio, city employees in a social media post is asking an Erie County judge to reverse that decision, the law firm that filed the motion announced on Tuesday.
The Pattakos Law Firm argues that Ashli Ford’s Facebook post is free speech protected by the First Amendment and is not a threat that should warrant her conviction. The firm also claims the conviction has had a “chilling effect” that silences the “non-threatening expression” made by Ford.
According to court documents, the September 2023 Facebook post made allegations against multiple city officials in Norwalk: Mayor David Light, the city’s law director and prosecutor Stuart O’Hara, the city’s safety and service director Michael White and former Norwalk police chief David Smith.
“Ford stated she had the four men ‘on [their] knees,’ and she would ‘slowly crumble the reputation of every person who stands in the way of justice,’ according to court documents. “She went on to claim she would ‘escort [them] to [their] demise in a manner more akin to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King Jr.'”
The Akron-area law firm claims “the Facebook post for which Ford was convicted consists entirely of classic political speech and does not contain any content that could be reasonably construed as a ‘true threat’ so as to overcome the First Amendment’s robust protections for such speech.”
Hellbound and Down 