Ohio Appeals Court affirms menacing case from violent FB lyrics
This is an interesting case:
9th District affirms aggravated menacing case stemming from violent song lyrics posted to Facebook. An Ohio Court of Appeals recently upheld the aggravated menacing conviction of a man who sang threatening song lyrics about the mother of his child that were posted on Facebook. who was the subject of the song. According to case summary, Gilbert and R.C. were involved in a custody dispute when he wrote a song and performed it in a music video with his brother, O.G., who played a ukulele. The song was filmed by a third person, and O.G. posted it on his Facebook page, which was seen by R.C. and then reported to police. The song included lyrics about Gilbert kicking in the door to his “baby momma’s house,” tying her up with her kids and the “dude she started sleepin’ with,” dousing them with gasoline and lighting up a cigarette. The song’s refrain is the line, “If you f**k me over, I’m gonna kill you."
Gilbert took the stand to say that as an artist and a performer, he did not write the song about anyone in particular. He admitted R.C. is the mother of his only children, but claimed the lyrics in the song are just a metaphor. “The baby mom in the song is basically the world, like, the pain that I’m going through,” he told the trial court. “You know what I’m saying? And with that being said, the metaphor being that as the baby mom. When I said, `kick the door in,’ that’s just me just kicking away all my problems and my pains and how, how everything is going on in my life.” Gilbert also admitted he intended to post the song online when it was finished but that R.C. is “blocked” from his Facebook. He added that he commonly posts videos on his Facebook page “saying this and that” and was unaware his brother – who had not blocked R.C. -- was going to post the video.
Appellate Judge Teodosio found Gilbert’s arguments to be without merit. “The (trial) court determined that Mr. Gilbert knew the video would be posted, just like the brothers’ other videos, and that Mr. Gilbert knew R.C. would eventually see it,” he stated. Appellate judges Julie Schafer and Jennifer Hensal concurred.
Attachment 23589
Attachment 23590
Article here: http://akronlegalnews.com/editorial/20119
Read the court's decision here: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod...-Ohio-1883.pdf
