A retired Tennessee law enforcement officer who was held in jail for more than a month after police arrested him over a Facebook post of a meme related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk has settled a “unlawful incarceration” lawsuit for $835,000.
Under the deal announced Wednesday, Larry Bushart, agreed to drop the five-month-old case alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when officials in Perry County, Tennessee, held him in jail for 37 days last fall.
“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy.”
The case, which Bushart brought with the help of lawyers from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, had been set to go to trial in late July before a federal jury in Memphis. He had not asked for a specific amount of money in the lawsuit.
