Richard Luthmann and I were back for The Unknown Episode 26. This time we were talking about the breakdown of the cease fire in Gaza, Starlink partnering with T-Mobile, the latest on Paul Boyne, and starting twenty-one minutes in it was our What the Hale$ segment.
Starting 1:07:00 in, we talked about a story which Mr. Luthmann has produced a lot of coverage for. He’s been tracking how a New Jersey woman, Monica Ciardi, has rotted in jail for more than six months over Facebook posts.
It’s not her first stint in jail over Facebook posts either.
For weeks, Monica Ciardi vented on Facebook about her ex-husband, their bitter child custody dispute, and the Morris County judges overseeing it, calling the jurists liars and demanding their resignations in posts that sometimes numbered dozens a day.
She knew her rants might rankle, so she posted about that too, citing a federal court ruling protecting social media posts as free speech.
“ZERO RETALIATION IS PERMITTED AGAINST ME FOR EXERCISING MY RIGHTS. Take notice,” she wrote on Dec. 15.
A week later, police swarmed her Chatham home and took her to jail in handcuffs after Morris County prosecutors decided at least one post about the judges amounted to terroristic threats, harassment, and retaliation against a public official.
“This is my personal Facebook page with 50 people on it,” Ciardi said. “They came to my page and then turned around and said I harassed them. That’s like if I know you don’t like me, I go to your house, I stand on your front porch, I overhear you saying bad things about me, and then I call the cops and say, ‘She’s harassing me. I know I’m on her porch, but you should just hear what she said.'”
Now, free speech advocates are watching the case, which her attorney characterizes as “the government punishing and jailing a woman for simply speaking her mind.”
Ciardi was back in prison after the stink mentioned in the story above. This time she forgot to put quotations marks on a Facebook post and a judge took it as a threat. In the Facebook post, she stated the following.
If you don’t do what I say, you’ll never see your children again
This was something that her family court judge told her. She was quoting her judge, Peter Bogaard. She didn’t use quotation marks, and Judge Bogaard believed it was a threat. She was quickly detailed, and she remains locked up today.
After the broadcast, a stunning indictment was handed down. Rick had more.
New Jersey Mom Monica Ciardi rots in Essex County Jail in Newark, New Jersey. This latest stint, not her first, began last October.
The State of New Jersey indicted her last month on several charges. However, it appears her only crime is that she wants to be a mother to her children, while her connected husband, John Uanis, and his new wife, Melanie Hemsey, will not allow it.
We just obtained a copy of the charging instrument.
The indictment confirms that Ciardi is indeed a “Family Court Hostage.” The charges levied:
Second Degree Falsely Incriminating Another (3)
Fourth Degree Harassment (1)
Fourth Degree Contempt (1)
All of these charges are FELONY CHARGES. This is a five-count indictment.
For each Second Degree charge, Ciardi faces a maximum sentence of TEN YEARS in prison, a $150,000 fine, and a felony record.
Ciardi faces a maximum of EIGHTEEN MONTHS in prison for each Fourth Degree charge, a $10,000 fine, and a felony record.
Ciardi will serve thirty-three years in jail and be fined $470,000 if convicted of all counts and sentenced concurrently.
The whole thing looks a lot like the sham indictment against Paul Boyne. It’s another example of the judiciary going after critics while criminalizing speech.
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