Judge tosses suits against 3 lawmakers over posts after Chiefs Super Bowl Rally shooting

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This article was published 22/10/2024 (688 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A judge has tossed three more lawsuits filed against lawmakers who shared social media posts that falsely accused a Kansas man of being among the shooters who opened fire at a rally celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory.

Denton Loudermill Jr., who was briefly handcuffed but not charged in the chaos that followed the deadly Feb. 14 shooting, filed federal lawsuits against three Republican Missouri state senators: Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County.

The dismissal of those suits Monday comes a month after a similar suit was dismissed against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee.

The judge cited issues with jurisdiction. Loudermill, who is from Olathe, Kansas, filed in federal court in Kansas, rather than in Missouri, where the lawmakers were from.

Loudermill’s lawyer, Arthur Benson, said that he planned to refile the lawsuits soon. Benson said previously that he also plans to refile a lawsuit against Burchett in Washington, D.C., where the congressman was when he posted about Loudermill on social media.

The shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than 20 others, many of them children.

Loudermill’s lawsuits said he froze when the gunfire erupted, standing in the middle of the chaos so long that police had put up crime scene tape by the time he finally started to walked away. As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and put him on a curb, where people began taking pictures and posting them on social media, the suits said.

Loudermill ultimately was led away from the area and told he was free to go.

But soon posts began appearing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that included a picture of Loudermill, a car wash employee who was born and raised in the U.S. The posts called him an “illegal alien” and a “shooter,” even though he had no involvement, the suits said.

Versions of those posts, one by Burchett, were then were re-posted on the three Missouri lawmaker’s accounts, accompanied by comments from the lawmakers.

Schroer asked for confirmation or denial from law enforcement when he reposted the message from Burchett’s account.

“I’ve been sent videos or stills showing at least 6 different people arrested from yesterday but officially told only 3 still in custody,” Schroer wrote on social media over Burchett’s post. “The people deserve answers.”

After the judge’s ruling, Schroer described the lawsuits as frivolous in a statement and said he was “exploring all legal options available against persons and media outlets that knowingly spread fake news instead of what I actually asked on social media.”

Hoskins said in a statement that he agreed with the judge’s decision and would “continue to pray for the innocent victims of the Kansas City parade shooting.”

Brattin said elected officials “must have the right to speak publicly on matters of public safety without fear of liberal elites in the media creating false narratives in an attempt to destroy their credibility and provoke frivolous legal attacks.”

The judge had denied as moot an argument that the three senators were protected by “legislative immunity” in their roles as lawmakers.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, which defended the three senators, praised the ruling.

“Questions of Missouri law belong in Missouri courts, not in remote courts in other states,” spokesperson Madeline Sieren said in a statement. “We have said that from Day One. Missourians should rest assured that they have an Attorney General who will always follow the law, even when it’s not easy.”