Welcome to Court Watch #168. The docket roundup is below, but first let’s talk about emerging patterns.
This week, authorities in Ohio arrested a man who, among a lot of troubling things, allegedly threatened worshippers at a local mosque. The 20-year-old, Wyatt Brzoska, was said to be a fan of Brenton Tarrant, the man who murdered dozens in a New Zealand mosque in 2019. And while it took the media a couple of days (and some gentle Court Watch prodding) to notice the case, we worry that the public’s focus was singularly focused on Brzoska’s would-be target. We would argue that paragraph seven didn’t draw enough attention as a key component of the affidavit. Explaining the significance of Brzoska’s online hashtags, the FBI notes that “The hashtag ‘#tcc’ is believed to refer to the ‘true crime community,’ which is an online community that began as individuals interested in discussing true crime, but eventually evolved into a community that worships and admires the perpetrators of violence and mass shootings, such as Tarrant. Your affiant is aware of several mass shooting incidents that had ties to the ‘true crime community.’”
Arrests like this don’t tend to happen in a vacuum. And we try our best to alert our readers when trends start quietly bubbling up in the criminal courts. So we went fishing around the federal courts for other similar cases.
Unfortunately that led us to find our second would-be mass shooter Court Watch scoop of the week.
Yesterday, federal law enforcement charged 19-year-old Eric Constantine Byrd of Raleigh, North Carolina with communicating a threat. The detailed 22-page criminal complaint outlines the story of a young man accused of being engrossed in neo-nazi, mass shooter glorification, and nihilistic culture. There’s a lot to unpack in that last sentence, but it all has the markers of another ‘true crime community’ adherent. In short, authorities say Byrd obsessively posted Instagram pictures of himself with guns, praising past mass shooters such as Tarrant and Solomon Henderson, a 17-year old Tennessee school shooter. At the fringes of the Internet world that Brzoska and Byrd are said to have frequented, Tarrant and Henderson are considered ‘saints’ that accelerationists, white supremacists, and nihilist violent extremists seek to venerate and revere. Byrd allegedly posted a series of pictures of himself holding a gun and making threatening comments against others and himself. Law enforcement stated he wrote in one post, "I'm not anybody in this world and nobody is special unless they do something like Brenton Tarrant."
According to charging documents, the FBI and the Raleigh Police Department successfully filed an involuntary commitment request, which Bryd was detained on as part of an order on March 9th. Efforts to reach Byrd for comment on this story were unsuccessful. Court Watch was unable to identify a lawyer for the defendant, nor was one assigned to his criminal case. The Department of Justice did not respond to a late Thursday evening inquiry to comment. According to the docket, a magistrate judge signed an arrest warrant for Byrd which would allow the Bureau to detain Byrd if he is released from his involuntary commitment.
We’ll have a lot more to say about this case and similar ones in this Sunday’s The Rabbit Hole but in the midst of last week’s newsletter lede focusing on international terrorism, we thought it prudent to highlight what other violent ideologies may also keep you up at night. We shouldn’t be the only ones with bloodshot eyes and a nagging sense of impending doom about Gen Z.
However, the rest of the dockets this week provide a welcome respite from all the negativity brought by angry and confused young men. So join us as we talk about flying urine, swinging Richards, and judges that rock.
The Docket Roundup
Never thought one could search for the words “swinging dicks” and get three results in an appellate opinion but here we are.
A nursing student sued the University of Cincinnati over claims that the school expelled her after she voiced concerns about its decision to roll back diversity programs.
A judge says the Treasury Department can’t ask for more details on real estate transactions around the country.
One guy in Oregon allegedly robbed a bank and then just waited in the parking lot across the street for the cops to arrest him. And another in Alaska reportedly tried to rob a bank while “armed with the power & authority of Jesus Christ.”
A new FOIA suit wants access to the Justice Department’s national database of law enforcement accused of misconduct.
Prosecutors at the Eastern District of New York said the quiet part loud.
We’re about two steps removed from a case in front of the Supreme Court suing <checks notes> Chief Justice John Roberts. Also, Judge Trevor McFadden went on record, “third times not the charm.”
A few weeks ago, we mentioned we were part of a team of New York Times reporters who were semi-finalists for the Goldsmith Award for Investigative Journalism. As of yesterday, we can now drop the ‘semi’ and just be finalists. The award decision will be in April.
We were shocked it took this long, but the SEC and Elon Musk have finally entered into settlement negotiations with a trial around the corner.
A Massachusetts man caught a charge for allegedly threatening a federal official in an email that included devil emojis.
Speaking of threats, a California man was indicted for purportedly tweeting threats at a gamer.
The government offered the court a tour of the construction site of the White House’s new East Wing.
A 73-year-old Syrian man who ran a notorious political prison under the Assad regime was convicted of torture and immigration fraud.
One alleged neo-Nazi dared to ask, “Hello FBI would you say this post is worthy of you raiding my house again?” To which the answer was a resounding yes.
An Indiana grand jury indicted the chair of a Michigan housing authority for allegedly accepting bribes in return for contracts.
Brock Pierce is being sued over a cryptocurrency-themed Shark Tank-esque show. Side note, that’s the second time we’ve written about that knock-off of the original show.
A federal air marshal on a stakeout for the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is suing because he got charged with reckless driving while getting into an accident at said stakeout.
Speaking of air law, we’re not sure why Alaska always has the wildest passenger plane cases, but here you go.
We did a lot of writing this week, which meant we also did a lot of music listening. So here’s a couple songs of the week. If you feel like bops that quietly slap, try this one or that one. If you’re feeling a melancholy vibe, try this. But honestly, we’re a sucker for any song that sneaks a horn into it.
Judge Lindsay finds a lot of reasons to not have to decide a person’s fate.
Journalist Eion Higgins filed another brief to support his motion to dismiss Matt Taibbi’s defamation case.
Throwing a cup of your urine after passing a drug test is something. So is faking a kidnapping while on supervised release.
A New York man pleaded guilty to smuggling folks through an Indian reservation at the Canadian/US border.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. can’t get rid of vaccines, at least for now.
X was sued again for Grok’s purported production of child exploit images. We had a Rabbit Hole piece about the increase in AI-related child abuse cases a few weeks ago.
A Georgia man reportedly impersonated an OnlyFans model to steal money from professional athletes. He was indicted seven years ago for a similar scheme.
Immigrant nonprofits are pushing back against ICE’s efforts to delay FOIA requests until after the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown ends.
Real friends don’t let their friends look for investments on Facebook.
A bunch of blue states are suing the Department of Housing and Urban Development over new Trump administration policies involving funding.
Image: We were in Minneapolis this week for the national council of family and juvenile court judges conference discussing what to do with kids like the ones featured in today's lede. As part of the conference, the band 'Reasonable Doubts' which is made up of Minnesota judges performed. We wanted our readers to see how hard their rock poster slaps.
We wrote a few weeks ago about the Middle District of Georgia and the importance of legal reporting, even in overlooked parts of the country. Now, a Middle District judge has ordered discovery in a case that could have national implications for immigration bond hearings.
Maybe don’t drink the water in Groveland, Massachusetts.
A 55-year-old Maryland man was sentenced to over three years in prison for mailing threatening letters to Jewish synagogues and community centers.
Okay, would someone tell us what’s up with these fertilizer antitrust cases? It’s the second week in a row.
A Charleston, South Carolina, school board member was indicted for alleged PPP fraud and a bribery scheme.
Flying under the radar: It appears UPS may have settled its first consumer lawsuit about tariff reimbursements.
Taking a picture of purported fentanyl and leaving it on your camera roll for the cops to search later is just too easy. (hattip Alaska journalists!)
A Lebanese American executive sued IBM for discrimination, claiming that he had been passed over for promotions in favor of employees with different national origins.
The Sixth Circuit had a fun case involving artificial intelligence-generated cases and fireworks.
Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled against the administration’s termination of thousands of international student visas for purported criminal violations, some of which were for simple traffic misdemeanors. Sooknanan wrote, “For all these students, the Government upended their lives and inflicted immeasurable harm for no reason whatsoever. And then it appeared in courts again and again to defend its actions as lawful.”
A Tennessee woman was sentenced to 40 months in prison for conspiring to create and distribute animal torture videos.
The feds got two new tote bags and a bag of Native American arrowheads.
Thanks for reading. In this Sunday’s The Rabbit Hole, we expand upon today’s lede.
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