{"id":72474,"date":"2026-07-22T13:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=72474"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:39:32","slug":"federal-judge-to-hood-county-no-you-cant-have-immunity-for-arresting-someone-for-a-meme-not-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=72474","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge To Hood County: No You Can’t Have Immunity For Arresting Someone For A Meme. Not Yours."},"content":{"rendered":"

For some reason, public official who are the target of online satire continue to have trouble understanding that pesky First Amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A federal district judge has denied immunity to Hood County officials who arrested a Navy veteran and journalist for posting a political meme, clearing the way for his lawsuit to move forward on the merits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hood County is southwest of Fort Worth. <\/p>\n

The journalist had frequently criticized public officials, including those responsible for his arrest.<\/p>\n

By denying the motion to dismiss, the court kept the journalist\u2019s constitutional claims alive and offered an early signal of skepticism toward criminalizing political satire.<\/p>\n

Kolton Krottinger is a U.S. Navy veteran and journalist in Hood County who \u201creports on local government, interviews candidates, and publishes political commentary and analysis to the public on matters of public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krottinger is one of multiple administrators on the Facebook page called \u201cHood County Sheepdogs<\/a>.\u201d The page contains a disclaimer making clear it is for satire and jokes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first meme on the page is making fun of James Talarico, so I’m already inclined to like them. They also have some anti-Flock camera posts. <\/p>\n

In October 2025, the Hood County Sheepdogs account made a post on the Granbury Breaking News Facebook page containing a photoshopped image that made it appear as if Tina Brown had endorsed Monica Brown for a local school board election\u2014despite Tina actually supporting Monica Brown\u2019s rival.<\/p>\n

Hood County Constable John Shirley said he thought the post was a joke, and that the individual the post impersonated would never have supported Monica Brown \u201cbecause she very openly, loudly, and publicly hates her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tina Brown filed a criminal complaint which sparked an investigation led by now-former Deputy James Luckie. In November, Luckie signed a criminal complaint charging Krottinger with online impersonation. The complaint omitted that the page had multiple administrators\u2014merely finding that the post was made by a T-Mobile user and that Krottinger was an owner of the page who used T-Mobile.<\/p>\n

Justice of the Peace Sissy Freeman signed a warrant for Krottinger\u2019s arrest, citing an \u201cintent to defraud the general public,\u201d and Luckie arrested him on November 5\u2014the day after the local election. Krottinger\u2019s phone was seized at the time of arrest without a warrant, and has yet to be released.<\/p>\n

In December, Justice of the Peace Earl \u201cDub\u201d Gillum entered an order of discharge after finding that the State did not establish probable cause. Shortly after, the Ellis County District Attorney\u2019s Office rejected the prosecution because there was \u201cinsufficient evidence\u201d to establish that Krottinger was the person who created or posted the meme.<\/p>\n

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds had used the office\u2019s official Facebook page to post multiple times about Krottinger\u2019s arrest, noting how his speech constituted a criminal offense. Deeds wrote that Krottinger\u2019s arrest warrant was issued after probable cause was established\u2014after the State had already said it did not have evidence to defend its case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Deeds seems unclear on a great deal of case law establishing parody as protected speech under the First Amendment, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell among them. <\/p>\n

After receiving heavy public criticism surrounding the arrest, Sheriff Deeds restricted public comments on the office\u2019s Facebook page. Even after Krottinger\u2019s complaint was formally discharged, he was prevented from commenting on a post recognizing the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s employees, even though eight other members of the public had been able to do so.<\/p>\n

Krottinger filed a federal lawsuit in January 2026, accusing Sheriff Deeds, Deputy Luckie, District Attorney Ryan Sinclair, and Hood County of violating his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fourth Amendment claim is obviously based on the cellphone seizure. The Fourteenth Amendment claim would be that Krottinger was not afforded equal protection under the law.<\/p>\n

Deeds, Luckie, and Hood County filed a motion to dismiss\u2014with Deeds and Luckie claiming qualified immunity, while Hood County claimed it cannot be held liable as a municipality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Snip.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O\u2019Connor denied the defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss\u2014finding that Krottinger had alleged sufficient claims to overcome qualified immunity and impose municipal liability.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrottinger has sufficiently alleged that Luckie and Sheriff Deeds violated his clearly established rights to be free from arrest without probable cause, malicious prosecution, and First Amendment Retaliation,\u201d wrote Judge O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Regarding municipal liability, O\u2019Connor found that Hood County is liable for Sheriff Deeds\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs stated above, the complaint plausibly alleges that Sheriff Deeds was personally involved in unlawfully targeting Krottinger for investigation and in Krottinger\u2019s unlawful arrest,\u201d O\u2019Connor continued. \u201cHis deliberate decisions therein, as well as in selectively restricting the Facebook page, are actions for which Hood County is liable under the final policymaker doctrine.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The case may now proceed on the merits of Krottinger\u2019s claims.” As well it should.<\/p>\n

It’s long past the point that thin-skinned public officials can get away with prosecuting memes directed at them as crimes*. Deeds at all should be held accountable and pay through the nose for violating the First Amendment. <\/p>\n

\n

*At least here in the U.S. In the UK, Labour seems to imprison people for #wrongthink at the drop of a hat. People should tell them that Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/b><\/a> was a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some reason, public official who are the target of online satire continue to have trouble understanding that pesky First Amendment. A federal district judge has denied immunity to Hood County officials who arrested a Navy veteran and journalist for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":10019,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[14521,365,360,416,14515,14526,14519,14518,55,2847,14516,3565,14522,14520,2861,8653,14517,12485],"class_list":["post-72474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-texas","tag-earl-dub-gillum","tag-facebook","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-hood-county","tag-immunity-public-officials","tag-james-luckie","tag-kolton-krottinger","tag-lawsuit","tag-memes","tag-monica-brown","tag-reed-oconnor","tag-roger-deeds","tag-sissy-freeman","tag-texas","tag-texas-scorecard","tag-tina-brown-hood-county","tag-travis-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72505,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72474\/revisions\/72505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}