Desperation: Alabama GOPer’s Harassment Of Legal Blogger Backfiring?
Last week, an Alabama sheriff made what appeared to be a bogus traffic stop in an attempt to serve whistleblowing legal blogger Roger Shuler with legal papers. Rob Riley, a big player in Alabama GOP politics, had apparently filed an injunction against Shuler connected to Shuler’s having exposed Riley’s extramarital affair with Liberty Duke.
In a true Keystone Kourts move, Riley now seeks to have Shuler held in contempt of court. Problem is,
[u]nder Alabama law, however, no preliminary injunction exists because we were not given proper notice of a hearing on the matter. In fact, Riley’s own court documents prove that no lawful injunction exists.
How do we know? It’s spelled out in an Alabama Supreme Court case styled Southern Homes, AL v. Bermuda Lakes, LLC, 57 So. 3d 100 (Ala., 2010) As you can see, the ruling was issued in 2010, so it’s not ancient law. A Yale Law School graduate like Rob Riley should be able to find it. But apparently that kind of research is beyond Mr. Riley’s legal skills–and those of retired Circuit Judge Claud Neilson, who issued the injunction. …
[T]he issuance of a preliminary injunction is serious business–and it requires that an adverse party be able to prepare opposition. Lawyers for Southern Homes had roughly two hours’ notice of the preliminary-injunction hearing. According to Rob Riley’s own documents, we had less than 24 hours’ notice.
Moves like that can ricochet back on the perpetrator pretty badly — especially as Shuler’s travails are being picked up by moire and more Internet sites. Riley is inadvertantly begging for mainstream media coverage with his ill-conceived legal moves. As a certain other web site is fond of saying, “Developing Hard”…
