D.J. Byrnes, known in Ohio as ‘The Rooster,’ sent state senator Jerry Cirino a digitally altered image of nude Shrek. Nothing more. A text message that anyone could block in two seconds.
But Cirino did not block him: he wrote to Kirtland police demanding charges, called the image ‘pornographic,’ and, weeks later, Byrnes was arrested inside the state Capitol in Columbus. He spent 23 hours in the Franklin County jail, charged with telecommunications harassment, an offense that could cost him up to six months in prison.
What no one disputes is the object of so much scandal: a joke about a green cartoon ogre. The organization FIRE has already come out in his defense, calling it protected political speech, while the senator himself publicly denies having requested the arrest, even though the email bearing his signature says otherwise.
