Four pieces of news from different places - all freedom of speech related - converged for me over the last three days.
(1) The disbarment of civil rights attorney Connie Reguli in Tennessee - an active critic of corruption in the Family Court system, an active speaker to federal and state legislators, a judicial candidate in her state - for (I am not kidding) "poisoning the well of justice" with her criticism (words from her actual order of disbarment); Connie Reguli suffered a contrived criminal prosecution for a felony for her position as a civil rights advocate, the conviction was overturned - but they took her law license, permanently now, anyway;
(2) An arrest and criminal charges for free speech and "discreditation of the Russian army" in Volgograd, Russia of my longtime colleague and Facebook friend Roman Melnichenko, a law professor, for teaching Ukranian in the war-time Russia, for asking to discipline a judge for an adamant anti-Ukranian position, for asking to "denazify" the judiciary.
I have had multiple discussions with Roman about the theory and practice of law, in Russia and in the United States. He is a proliferant educator on issues of law, and an adamant opponent of attorney monopoly in Russia.
Roman's criminal defense counsel's status (kind of a license, there is no full scale attorney monopoly - yet - in Russia, even though attempts are made and an onset of such a monopoly, American-type, is close) was suspended by the local criminal defense bar some time ago - as I understand, for his free speech positions criticizing certain developments in that same bar.
After the war against Ukraine started, Roman's fearless public position earned him a firing from his job as a law professor in the Volgograd State University.
I do not know why Roman did not leave the country as many other people did. He certainly had powerful, including financially, friends who could help him do that.
Under the wartime laws of Russia, Roman (whose parents are Ukranian and have been in the Ukraine when the war started, as far as I know) may be now facing up to 15 years in prison for his public statements.
Regardless of the outcome of criminal charges, Russian criminal detention system, as reported by Russian colleagues, civil rights organizations and prisoners and their families, is extremely unfriendly to prisoners' health, safety and dignity.
Roman's safety is in jeopardy now.
It was Roman who urged me to start publishing formal law review articles - which I am doing since 2017. I owe him a debt of gratitude for that.
3) Delaware County (NY), in a federal lawsuit by a newspaper against it that garnered nationwide attention, suffered a major setback two days ago when a federal judge denied it a summary judgment in the case (it denied it to the newspaper, too - predictably so, as both sides raised issues of fact in their dueling motions for a summary judgment) and cleared the path for trial as to whether the County and its public officials (County attorney Merklen, County Chairperson Mole, County "Public Information Officer" Johnson-Bennett) retaliates against journalists who criticize the County;
See the federal court's decision denying the County's motion to dismiss dated February 24, 2025;
4) As an active journalist who forced Delaware County (NY) - through a lawsuit of my own for 1st Amendment retaliation - to recognize me as a journalist, I received a press release yesterday from the Republican Delaware County (NY) District Attorney's Office, about indictment of the County's young political opponents for a host of crimes including a felony that carries 7 years in prison as maximum punishment.
To me, these four events are interrelated.
They are all about the government - at state, federal, and local level, regardless of the country, is trying to suppress free speech and demonize critics of its misconduct by any means possible.
As I understand from news reporting, the young women charged by the Republican Delaware County DA were spray-painting political messages criticizing the current president Donald Trump and ICE - both on Village property (pubic property) and on private property.
As far as I understand, political messages against President Biden were appearing all over the place in the same County during the Biden presidency - with the same DA sitting on his hands and doing nothing. Here - the grand jury indictment is instant.
He is trying to make an example out of the entrenched Republican County's young political opponents now.
The Sidney Village mayor publicly commended the police for quick apprehension of the graffiti painters - with an interesting claim that it was heartbreaking for him to see public property being "defamed".
I do not know who trained him in constitutional law - he should know basic concepts of it not to violate people's rights - but there is no such thing in state or federal law as defamation of GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, nor of public institutions.
And, the President would have had a hard time suing the kids for defamation - the standards of pleading in such cases are set by constitutional precedent high and the President's defamation lawsuit against the kids would never have been successful, if the President would even undertake fighting with kids in court over graffitis.
These girls' young faces are now all over Facebook, and in the news. Notably, the police is secretive if any of their own is charged with even a disciplinary action. To protect their "privacy".
As it happens usually - and I have been reporting on this particular issue for over a decade, with several articles specifically dedicated to public reactions to announcements of criminal charges that completely erase the presumption of innocence - in news reports by the local press (with a very few exceptions) presumption of innocence is not mentioned or honored.
In the Village Police's Facebook post presumption of innocence IS mentioned. In the news reports - it is already omitted.
The public in comments on social media already convicted them and is discussing punishment.
This is DELIBERATE tainting of the jury pool by Delaware County DA's office.
It is the DA's office who should have imposed on the news outlets to include presumption of innocence in their reporting, and to seek correction of improper publicity before trial when presumption of innocence was not included.
Misconduct of DA's office, politically-based misconduct, is even starker when considering that it was involved in destruction by its successive confidential informants of several of our homes (no concern about property - or life - of a critic of the local government), and that the County recently endorsed a convicted felon for a Republican Chair (removed at this time, but given a position of Town of Hamden tax assessor, forbidden by her criminal sentence), despite her history of a felony conviction for KILLING a Latino father of two children while DRIVING DRUNK.
She was given 4 months of jail time for that, total.
The three young women are charged with a D felony (top count) carrying a maximum of $5,000 fine (per count) and 7 years in state prison (and a loss of voting rights, of course) for, as far as I could gather from various media sources, spray-painting political messages criticizing President Trump and ICE.
Of course, for the local idio... oops, government officials, that is a crime much worse than killing a Latino young father of two, or intimidating the local criminal defense attorneys and their family members and destroying their properties - adamantly, openly, relentlessly.
So - who is poisoning the wells of justice?
I will continue to go over the Sidney kid graffiti case, with full analysis of the charges and of their constitutionality under free speech/1st Amendment principles.
That is especially important that, if these three young girls are to be represented by the local Publi Defender's office.
The Public Defender Joe Ermeti is heavily entrenched in Republican policies of the County and should not touch this case with a 10-foot pole.
There should be a conflict defender appointed - but who is the appointing judge? John Hubbard? To whom Joe Ermeti ceded a path to judicial position?
In fact, I reported on this blog that, apparently, Joe Ermeti got his position as a Public Defender created and given to him right after he, as a special prosecutor, refused to charge former County crooked CPS boss Bill Moon for a felony - playing ball with the Republican majority of the County's government.
Joe Ermeti then made numerous public statements to the effect that he took a fall for the Republican Party by allowing two judicial candidates from the Republicans (Richard Northrup and John Hubbard) to take judicial seats on the County Court - the very court who will be presiding over prosecution of the young girls.
Joe Ermeti - according to deposition of the local newspaper's editor (where the newspaper is suing the County and 2 days ago, got a right to a jury trial to determine its 1st Amendment retaliation claims) - pursues journalists for criticism in the press by visiting their offices physically and advancing at them with "balled fists" - conduct that the DA's office leaves uninvestigated and unprosecuted.
The County's public information officer - according to the same deposition - has journalists physically detained, on numerous occasions, in County buildings by County security officers to prevent newsgathering activities - with DA Smith, once again, sitting on his hands and undertaking no investigations or prosecutions whatsoever of such conduct.
Because - in the political realm of the kissing-cousins Delaware County - who plays ball with whom matters more than law, facts or justice.
Speaking, again, of who poisons the proverbial well...
I truly hope that the young defendants in the graffiti case will be able to get representation from very far from Delaware County. From a well that is at least relatively unpoisoned by the local politics.
Otherwise their prospects in this case are predetermined by the local politics. And local politicians - the first that comes to mind is the appointed Queen of the County, County Attorney Amy Merklen who testified in the proceeding against independent CPS Commissioner Scuderi-Hunter (who was trying to clear up the mess created for decades by Bill Moon) that the Board (Tina Mole) passed a resolution putting Merklen above appointed AND ELECTED County Officers.
That includes DA Smith.
So - it is Merklen who could be driving this indictment, as DA Smith (and Sheriff DuMond) allowed their integrity and impartiality as elected County officers to be overpowered by administrative fiat of the Board. And Merklen testified in October of 2025 in a deposition in the Decker federal case that she knows zilch of the 1st Amendment. But obviously knows a lot about retaliation against critics of the government.
Had these girls spray-painted "We Love Merklen", they would have been kindly told not to do so again and given a medal of good citizenship.
As I stated above, I will continue to publish about the kid graffiti case, with statutory and constitutional analysis of the charges.
Stay tuned.
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