Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics

Court Orders The Belated Release Of Gianforte Mugshot

DL4toDGUEAEgsVAWe often debate how to take the best mugshot. Rep. Greg Gianforte (Mont.) went with the smile option and the results are pretty good. Nevertheless, Gianforte fought mightily to block the release of the mugshot after he assaulted a reporter.  He lost this week and a court ordered its release. This is the mugshot.

 

Gianforte was convicted in June and argued earlier that the court lacked authority to order the fingerprinting and mugshot of the congressman since he was charged with a misdemeanor rather than a felony.  There is no record however of his objecting to the belated release of the mugshot sought by the media.

As mugshots go, this is a remarkably good shot for the congressman.  If you know that a mugshot is likely to appear throughout your next campaign, you might as well make it presentable.

50 thoughts on “Court Orders The Belated Release Of Gianforte Mugshot”

  1. There may come a day in the U.S. when the only people who don’t have mugshots are the complacent — and the compliant:

    “When prominent public figures are wanted by the police, there are typically two ways officers handle it. Either call the person and ask them to come down to the station, or call the media and arrange for a perp walk. The Charlottesville police went with a third option, the one most likely to guarantee a politically devastating mugshot.

    “But for Fogel, the damage was already done. The day after the arrest, his ruffled mugshot was plastered all over the local paper. Discussion of the arrest overshadowed any news coverage of the debates or his campaign….“I’ve been a persistent critic of the police department. That’s why I got arrested. So you all might want to think about that.”” — from the following article

    https://theintercept.com/2017/10/12/before-charlottesville-was-in-the-spotlight-police-arrested-their-most-prominent-critic-in-the-middle-of-the-night/

    Excerpt:

    When prominent public figures are wanted by the police, there are typically two ways officers handle it. Either call the person and ask them to come down to the station, or call the media and arrange for a perp walk. The Charlottesville police went with a third option, the one most likely to guarantee a politically devastating mugshot.

    The police sought what’s called a non-permitted warrant — granted by local magistrate Justin Garwood — which can’t be effectuated by summons. The warrant gave them some flexibility about when they could execute it – so they could have delayed physically arresting Fogel until the next morning. But they chose to do it after midnight that night, dragging him to the police station in his pajamas.

    Fogel later told me that he was taken before the magistrate and spoke to Garwood one-on-one. According to Fogel, he asked Garwood why he allowed such a warrant rather than just having the police call him down to the station. “Because I didn’t like the way you spoke to the sergeant in the police department,” Garwood told him.

    Garwood threatened to have him detained, but then released him on a $5,000 personal security bond. When he got back to his house at 2:30 a.m., his wife was still looking for him at the county jail. Because Fogel didn’t have his keys, he sat outside and waited for her.

    (Garwood did not respond to a request for comment from The Intercept, and the story will be updated if he does.)

    Fogel filed a formal complaint with Avnel A. Coates, the chief magistrate for the judicial district that includes Charlottesville. Three days later, Coates sent him a letter, saying the arrest was appropriate, because there was “probable cause that there was an unwanted touching of the victim” and that “it is reasonable that there was a safety concern.”

    But for Fogel, the damage was already done. The day after the arrest, his ruffled mugshot was plastered all over the local paper. Discussion of the arrest overshadowed any news coverage of the debates or his campaign.

    On Election Day, a record number of people turned out — and nearly 40 percent of them cast their ballots for the man in his PJs. It wasn’t enough, but Fogel said he considers that a success — that his ideas were catching on. “It still seems significant that with that radical a program, I could get 40 percent of that vote,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the criminal case against Fogel stalled. After the local prosecutor recused himself, and the state initially had trouble finding a special prosecutor who hadn’t dealt with Fogel as a defense attorney in their line of work. But the case is scheduled to go forward later this month.

    The Charlottesville Police Department is also investigating Fogel’s arrest internally. According to emails Fogel shared with me, the officer in charge of the investigation communicated to Fogel that it was finished, but the department maintains it is ongoing.

    I filed public records requests seeking the investigation’s conclusions, as well as the police body camera footage of Fogel’s arrests, but both were withheld as investigative files. And whether or not the results of the investigation are ever made public, Fogel is clear about why he thinks they chose to arrest him.

    “I’ve been a persistent critic of the police department. That’s why I got arrested. So you all might want to think about that.” -Alex Emmons, The Intercept

  3. Sad and self destructive. That’s not how to respond to a pesky reporter who butts into your office. That’s just what they do. It doesn’t matter what anyone else has done. This was wrong and a blight on his record. People have got to keep control of their temper, even when they become frustrated and offended. This kind of incident is far more common against bodyguards and security guards when they remove trespassers.

    He may have been trying to push him out of his office with his body, but it was predictable that the reporter would end up keeling over backwards.

    1. Autumn – House IT security while in Pakistan. Talk about working from home. 😉

  5. also I wanna add – the DNC gave Quist a paltry sum as he is a Progressive – against corporate influence in politiics. Keep it up dummies. The DNC is a has-been party unless they unshackle themselves from their legacy since Bubba

    2. You remind of the Ruskies on FB pretending to be all
      Progressivey while the agenda was to elect their T rumper.

      2. Ken, could you please give one example of a russian influenced fb posting, article, even maybe a russian influenced ad?
        Just one of these deal breaking high volume messages that swayed anyone?
        just one please.

    3. Da DNC is dead says Autie. Notice she never mentions da RNC or T rumpie. Dat is for those that have fallen off Da turnips truck.

    4. Joe Biden came out yesterday against abuse of women after having served with Obama and Hillary under the democrat leadership of Bill Clinton, the greatest female abuser in American political history.

      You go, Joe!

      1. Joe Biden was a Senator from Delaware when Bill Clinton was president so he never served under Clinton. Obama had 0 allegations of sexual assault. How many does Trump have?

        1. Are you referring to the eminently ineligible citizen of Indonesia (per his high school application) who will never be a “natural born citizen,” which is required by the Constitution, because his father was a foreign citizen (Law of Nations, Book 1, Ch. 19, Sec. 212) plagued with foreign “allegiances” which the Jay/Washington letter, July, 1787, placed a “strong check” against?

          Ask Lowretched Flynch who runs the dumbocrap loser/parasite party in search of generational welfare, “Affirmative Action Privilege” and free healthcare. Ask her what she promised Bill Clinton after he pulled her plane over on the tarmac of the Phoenix Airport. Have you seen the Clinton Body Count? Wait, you’re saying that Uncle Joe hasn’t danced to the tune of Bill Clinton since 1992? Stand up “swarthmoremom,” take a bow.

          By the way, did you cure cancer, solve the anti-gravity puzzle, do anything in the least material or did you just drop the “swarthmore” name for lack of anything substantial or otherwise meaningful on your resume? Perhaps that is your birth name.

          1. Please tell me more of this type of information. As always, don’t bother yourself with making any sense.

            This is to “my universe is just fine, thank you” georgie

        2. How many does Trump have which are actually credible, much less provable?

          George W. Bush did not have any allegations of sexual assault against him, either. Interest in this datum on the part of partisan Democrats was nil.

          Howard Dean has been one of the odd ducks among the last generation’s consequential Democratic presidential candidates in that he has a well-ordered domestic life. Bernie Sanders has multiple marriages in his past and a bas**** child, Hellary needs no precis, John Edwards needs no precis, Wesley Clark traded in his wife in 2009, John Kerry has managed twice to marry women with 8-figure sums of money behind them, Bill Bradley paid out money to divorce lawyers when he was past 60, the Gores have been estranged for seven years and Tipper’s shacked up with a bf (while Al generates his huge carbon footprint all by his lonesome), and Billy Jeff Horndog requires no precis, Bob Kerrey’s been married multiple times (in addition to seducing Debra Winger), and the newspapers were deferential enough to Jesse Jackson that we’ve not been treated to the amusement that we got from Gary Hart’s shenanigans on the good ship Monkey Business. As for your non-transgressors, Paul Tsongas is 21 years dead, Paul Simon is 14 years dead, and Jerry Brown elected to eschew domestic life of any kind until he was 67 years old. That leaves you with Michael Dukakis (b. 1933), Walter Mondale (b. 1928), and Jimmy Carter (b. 1924).

          2. Wesley Clark is still married and in any case having multiple marriages has nothing to do with assault although Ivana claimed she was raped in the divorce proceedings.

            1. O.J. Simpson claimed he was innocent.

              Bill Clinton said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.”

              Hillary Clinton said she did not have classified material on her server/pc (Comey said she did).

              Susan Rice said the Benghazi cause was an anti-Mooselamb video (enemy mortars say “pre-planned”).

              Obama said he was a “natural born citizen” (his high school application states he is an Indonesian citizen).

  6. Regarding “Mugshots”. Newspapers thrive on them. They are photos of innocent people. You are innocent until proven guilty. What we need is an internet website of mugshots of news publishers. We can say that they are guilty of pedophila or whatever. Make fun of them.
    Perhaps a better way to have mugshots iis to release them upon conviction.

  7. A Presidential candidate could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Ave and people would still vote for him and a Congressional candidate can punch out a journalist and people will still vote for him. Around half of the population seems to worship violence.

      1. “you have to consider who they are running against”.

        are suggesting Gianassaulter’s (or whatever the hell his criminal name is) opponent had a criminal record that justifies assault on a another (a 3rd party reporter)?……….and also justified the cowardly lying that followed? Understand violence and lying may be the basis for religious conservatives life’s “mission” (after all, on this blog you have previously bragged about sucker punching others). But not sure what kind of sick justification (there is no legal theory) conservatives have for suggesting that violence on innocent 3rd party reporters are justified. Disgusting!

        1. Bill W – I do not remember bragging about sucker punching anyone. Have you had enough coffee yet? BTW, a long-term and beloved Senator of Wyoming was caught shooting mailboxes from a car. In the West, your honor is everything. In the 1880s you made the wrong statement you ended up dead. Now you just get your eye dotted. Reporters have to learn to be polite.

    2. Around half of the population seems to worship violence.

      You’ve made it clear in this forum that you worship yourself.

  8. A congressman engages in a physical assault. He then takes the position that being a congressman means that his status requires the police and the courts to treat him differently than any other law breaker and it would appear that some on this on this thread take the position that he only hit a reporter so what’s the big deal! Or even worst, he engaged in appropriate behavior. To put it mildly, that is very disappointing.

    1. Justice Holmes – I think Congresspeople rank higher than the press these days on the popularity scale. Back in the day, you could buy a rubber brick to throw at the TV when the newsreader said something you disagreed with. Today, you would need a bucket of bricks beside your chair just to get the local news. Two buckets, at least for the national news. The air would be filled with flying bricks. Since I stopped watching TV news, my stress levels and blood pressure have gone way down.

      1. Several media companies have gone out of their way to trash their brand. ESPN’s the most recent and gratuitous in that regard. Jeff Bezos has damaged the WaPoo, which retained under the Grahams a tincture of professionalism the Times had long since lost. CNN went over the edge prior to that. Pinch Sulzberger ruined what was a satisfactory newspaper (with an embarrassingly bad editorial page). One thing that impresses you about the PBS News Hour these days is how assiduously they frame every issue to support the position of the Democratic Party. They were much less relentless prior to Jim Lehrer’s retirement. (PBS and NPR have always been extensions of the Democratic Party with some redoubts of fair dealing. George Will called the formula “Seven parts propaganda, one part ‘balance'”).

    1. Christine Alford – I think we need a long-term study of people hitting news people with at least 1000 as the bottom number of hitters. I am sure I could get the CDC to fund this for me. Want to go halvies? What is the satisfaction level of hitting them. There are a lot of journals that would be happy to publish such a paper.

    2. He didn’t punch the reporter. That’s what I thought, too.

      A reporter barged into his officer, put a microphone to his face, and started asking questions. He did not leave when he was referred to another person. It escalated quite suddenly without much effort at telling him to leave or calling for security. The reporter claimed right after the incident that Gianforte body slammed him which caused him to break his glasses. The reporter was not a security threat, just a nuisance. People in Montana don’t get the paparazzi like we do in CA. Reporters can be unscrupulous and annoying, but you can’t run them over with your car. (Ask movie stars. They’ve tried…accidentally of course.) And I think the most tragic example of mishandling media attention will always be the loss of Princess Diana.

      http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/24/media/montana-gop-greg-gianforte/

  10. Assuming the jury sees the mugshot, it’s good that the defendant looks like a friendly, non-threatening guy. Same is true of voters. He’s lucky he was allowed to wear his own clothes instead of standing there in an orange jumpsuit holding a signboard with his name and arrest number.

  11. What did the reporter do to Gianforte?

    Obama abused the power of government against the People regarding the IRS assault on conservative organizations and his litigated acts of “executive overreach” among others.

    Is it possible for the “press” to abuse the “freedom of the press?”

    It seems like objectivity and accuracy have been thrown out the window and that far too many “journalists” have become abusive propagandists.

    U.S. officials who commit high crimes may be impeached.

    Did the Founders mean that the press was free to lie with impunity?

    1. Lie? The biggest liar (and fool) on the planet is our white supremacist president. And the news media that has lied the most is faux/fox news. Seemingly now surpassed by frightbart – an organization based almost 100% on lies.

      as for abuses of power……….obstruction of justice? violating the emoluments clause on a daily basis?, etc……… all more corrupt then your whiny “overreach”. at least dumb donald being an “effing moron” is not a crime. of course, it does make trump likely the dumbest president ever. but stupidity is the trait the current administration and their supporters most strive for.

      1. Lie? The biggest liar (and fool) on the planet is our white supremacist president.

        You might learn not to make statements which are self-indicting. Fake it til ya make it.

      2. Thanks for reading. I get it.

        I’ll put you in the “FOR” Freedom of the Press to Lie column.

  12. This is no big deal in Montana or Wyoming. Not sure why he was trying to hold it back, he could use it for his campaign.

    1. Assault for his campaign platform? Only the most devout republican would suggest and get away with lauding such criminality?

          1. Dewie J Gaul – I voted for Janet Napolitano for AG and Gov of AZ. Sorry, I did for Gov. since she was a waste, but she was a good AG. I have voted for other Democrats when I thought they would do the job better. In this last election, I did not vote for Senator at all. In the primary (Independents get to pick which primary they wish to vote in) I will be voting against Jeffy Flake.

            1. PCS, stop you are destroying your stellar reputation and giving me an upset stomach.

              Napolitano is nothing but an incompetent seat-holding, sycophantic —-kissing, communist “political officer” enjoying “Affirmative Action Privilege” who has been rewarded for loyalty to the communist party (CA is a one-party, communist state dictatorship), in my opinion.

              All for something just under $1M gross compensation (and I do mean gross as in absurd and entirely without merit).

              Is Janet Napolitano married?
              _____________

              August 10, 2012

              Daily Mail – “Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano is facing a mega lawsuit from an official who claims she gave a less-qualified woman with whom she has a ‘long-standing relationship’ a job over him.”
              _____________

              You sure know how to pick ’em!

              Some past comments here:

              https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2015/04/napolitano-this-crap-pays-your-570000-base-salary

              1. George – I did vote for her the first time, not the second time. And there was talk that Janet should come out of the closet when she was governor. There was no question that she was probably a dyke on bikes mentality, without the bike, you just have to listen to her deep voice. It wasn’t that people didn’t seem to know, there was no proof, she was almost asexual.

                1. PCS, that’s the “19th Amendment Effect.” Normal women are married and the husband casts an undiluted, meaningful vote for the benefit of the family as its representative in a representative republic. The 19th amendment facilitates the dictatorship-by-algorithm of the abnormal, radical, aggressive, zealous and asymmetrical Feminazi Gaystapo.

      2. Hey Bill W – to be sure what this guy did was inappropriate – but small change compared to the DNC shenanigans with HRC’s private server, disappeared emails, the destruction of Sanders AND

        most importantly the Awan brothers scam – wtf? These losers (spies?) from Pakistan who had access to Dim House Members?

        I value National Security over some stupid person who throws a punch at reporters!!

        As an independent I say get your own damn party in order or we will have Trump again in 2020!

      3. Multiple assaults were a “Badge of Honor” for Bill Clinton.

        “Juanita Broaddrick is an American former nursing home administrator. She alleged in 1999 that United States President Bill Clinton raped her in April 1978 when she was 35 years old and he was Arkansas Attorney General. President Clinton’s attorney, David Kendall, denied the allegations on his client’s behalf. Clinton declined to comment further on the issue.”

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