An Allegheny County judge will not detain a well-known Pittsburgh activist over posts she made about the shooting death of Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire.
Common Pleas Judge Kelly E. Bigley on Friday denied a request from District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s office to detain Nicky Jo Dawson.
“While the social media posts attributed to the defendant are shocking, abhorrent and appalling, neither the commonwealth’s motion or brief address the issue of the defendant’s First Amendment rights or whether making such posts actually violated a condition of the defendant’s probation,” Bigley wrote.
Zappala’s office filed a motion to detain Dawson in early January, asking that she have a probation violation hearing over allegations that she wrote “Off the pigs” and other distasteful messages on Facebook the day McIntire was killed.
In the motion, Chief Trial Deputy William Petulla also argued that Dawson, who was on probation after pleading guilty in July to arson and criminal mischief charges, was in violation of her probation because she had failed to pay the fees for six months of electronic monitoring.
Bigley noted in her order that Dawson has paid all of her outstanding electronic monitoring fees.
Dawson issued a written statement in response to Bigley’s order.
“Unfortunately, in this country, a BLaQK woman is either threatening or threatened,” she wrote. “The DA’s motion was a mediocre and, quite frankly, embarrassing retaliatory attempt to silence a BLaQK woman and anyone who thinks and/or agrees with her.”
Dawson added: “To reelect a DA who would have you thrown in jail over your social media posts, by infringing on your First Amendment right, is unconscionable. This egregious motion to illegally detain me proves that for BLaQK people, freedom of speech ain’t free, so plead the Fifth.”
According to the prosecution, after McIntire was shot and killed Jan. 2, Dawson posted on Facebook: “A pig died tonight. They want us to cry over it. They will use this to exterminate us and call it ‘looking for a suspect.’ ”
Petulla wrote that Facebook removed the posts, but Dawson then posted later: “Kill all these chitlin (expletives). I said what I meant.”
In his brief supporting his request for detention and a violation hearing, Petulla wrote that Dawson’s postings were “violence-inciting,” and that as a prominent activist, she has more sway over her audience than a less prominent person.
Witold Walczak, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said that Dawson’s words, even if objectionable, do not rise to the level of a threat and are constitutionally protected.
“This looks like a clear effort to retaliate against her for what she said,” Walczak said earlier this month. “It strikes me as overreach by the DA’s office.”
