ikeboy

Just totally fabricated. The indictment does not say the debit cards were stolen, it says he paid the issuer for them.

This is just totally made up. The indictment says he paid for the debit cards. There's no allegation that it was stolen.

Thomas Alan Arthur is currently serving 40 years in a US prison. He was convicted of publishing fictional text stories and two cartoon style drawings. (Note that he was accused of assault decades ago, which apparently factored into his sentence, but he was not charged or convicted of that.)

In this case the statement they checked off said that there was an unlawful reproduction of a trademark. There was no reproduction at all, since the products were originally manufactured by the brand. Boggles my mind how that can be an opinion.

The case shouldn't have been brought, but even if brought he should have had a prompt bond hearing and been let out within 24 hours.

My concern is that new crimes will be weaponized.

What does that have to do with the elements of false imprisonment?

Magistrates are supposed to verify that the warrant contains probable cause and reject ones that don't.

You could make the system more adversarial at that point, although I think enforcing bail hearings where a public defender can argue would help in this and many other cases.

>We need to tame the impulse to throw people in jail for doing things we dislike

And in comments I expanded on this and gave several specific reforms.

Not sure what your understanding was.

Look up the elements of false imprisonment.

When there's a warrant, even if wrongly granted, the arrest and imprisonment is considered lawful.

The magistrate judge should not have approved the warrant. They should have had a bail hearing within 24 hours, at which it would have been clear that they posed no threat.

Instead somehow bail was set at $2 million and the hearing to reduce bail was delayed.

Those are flaws in the system that should be fixed, and will continue harming people even without bad faith from sheriffs.

The warrant here was approved by a magistrate judge, and I would suggest making the process for approval more robust to reduce this kind of abuse.

Personal civil liability and firing can also help.

As I mentioned elsewhere, neither currently apply because due process of law was followed.