The Anti-Christ

December 23, 2017

In what appears to be an extreme case of butthurt, the LPD seemingly became enraged at the fact that someone would beat them to a press release, so they acted. Villarreal, after receiving information, would go live on Facebook to report details of an incident that were not public at the time, the arrest affidavit states.

To reiterate, the police department would later release this exact information to the ‘official’ local media who would then report it. However, because Villarreal was first, she is now facing felony charges.

Naturally, Villarreal’s case is garnering the attention of those worried about the implications of First Amendment rights in her case, and it should. This independent journalist is the first person in the history of Webb County to be facing misuse of information charges, according to the paper.

Villarreal, who turned herself in voluntarily last Wednesday, says that the department is trying to silence her for criticizing its officers and beating the public relations department to the punch.

“All this is just a personal vendetta,” she told The Washington Post on Friday. “And I have all the proof I need to prove it.”

According to the Post, department spokesman Joe Baeza didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment early Friday. In comments to the Morning Times this week, he said: “We have no personal vendetta or ax to grind with anybody.”

However, if you look closely at the facts of the case, it becomes hard to believe Mr. Baeza.

As Reason noted, Texas law says a person can be guilty of misuse of official information if they solicit or receive information from a public servant, the official “has access to [that information] by means of his office or employment,” the info “has not been made public” yet, and the person receiving it does so “with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another” (emphasis mine). Villarreal was clearly not trying to harm or defraud anyone by publishing local news to LaGordiloca, so police must show that she did so “with intent to obtain a benefit” in order to make the misuse-of-information charge stick.

The “intent to obtain a benefit” part of the law is why the LPD is claiming Villarreal released the information to garner Facebook likes—a stretch, indeed—especially considering all the news she’s put out in the past.

“I strongly believe that censorship only hinders the advancement of a society,” writes Villarreal on a GoFundMe page she started since the arrest to pay for legal help. “I strongly believe in freedom of information and freedom of speech. I am in NO way a scholar of a higher learning institute but I am in my own way a graduate of the school of life most importantly the curriculum of what is right and what is wrong … I continue to be adamant that transparency in the political and law enforcement theater is the base for trust.”

Sergio Lozano, Villarreal’s attorney, says that he’s confident the state will be exposed as the aggressor in this case and noted, “We anxiously await for the case to go to court for her name to be cleared.”

In the land of the free, reporting on information before obtaining permission from armed agents of the State can result in your persecution and subsequent loss of freedom. Hopefully, for the sake of the freedom of the press, Villarreal’s case garners enough attention to expose the LPD as the tyrants they are and this face of modern media is allowed to walk free.

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.