Man Ordered to Apologize to Wife Daily on Facebook Cites Free Speech Violation & Wins
- Posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:34am by
Liz Klimas
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Mark Byron (Photo: WLWT)
CINCINNATI (The Blaze/AP) — A man who made comments about his estranged wife on his Facebook page — which he likened to venting while having a drink with a friend but on a larger scale — was threatened with jail unless he posted daily apologies for a month. Considering this a violation of his freedom of speech, Mark Byron stopped a few days shy of the 30-day requirement but a court has said he won’t face jail time over it.
Byron initially agreed to begin posting the apology last month to avoid jail but later said the ruling violated his First Amendment rights. He stopped posting the apology after 26 days, but Judge Jon Sieve, of Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court, determined Monday that he had posted it long enough.
Watch Judge Sieve share his thoughts about Byron’s “exploitation of the media” and his actions, which he says were “deplorable”:
Byron, of Cincinnati, said afterward that he was relieved not to be in jail, “but I was prepared to go to defend my free speech rights.”
Byron’s attorney, Becky Ford, said Monday that she has filed a notice of appeal in a state court.
“We believe that by scripting and saying what he had to post on Facebook, the court violated his rights to free speech,” Ford said. “The First Amendment not only protects your right to speak, but it also protects your ability to remain silent.”
The apology Byron had to post daily to avoid jail time. (Image: WLWT)
According to the ruling, Byron, 37, had posted comments on his page in November, saying in part, “If you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husband‘s life and take your son’s father away from him completely — all you need to do is say you‘re scared of your husband or domestic partner and they’ll take him away.”
The Byrons have been involved in ongoing divorce and child custody proceedings. Byron has said his wife and the court have prevented him from seeing his young son many times. The court maintains he is allowed to see him on a twice-weekly basis.
A June court order prohibited Byron from causing his wife physical or mental abuse, harassment or annoyance. She asked in December that he be found in contempt after learning of the Facebook comments.
Watch the local news report from after the February ruling:
Domestic Relations Magistrate Paul Meyers in January found Byron in contempt of a protective order because of his Facebook comments. He said Byron could avoid a 60-day jail sentence and a $500 fine by posting the apology — written by the magistrate — to his wife and all of his Facebook friends and paying her attorney fees. The same apology had to be posted every day no later than 9 a.m.
The ruling said several of Byron’s comments were intended to “generate a negative and venomous response toward her from his Facebook friends.”
Byron said Monday that, even if he didn’t go to jail, “this is a really big deal” for hundreds of millions of people using Facebook.
“They could do this to anybody,” he said.
Free speech and media experts have said that the case should concern other users of the social networking site.
Cincinnati attorney Jack Greiner, who specializes in free speech and media issues, said earlier that compelling speech through a court-written apology raises as many free speech concerns as prohibiting speech. He said Monday that the issue still causes concern but that he believes Byron might have difficulty appealing since he posted the apology and didn’t go to jail.
The statement Byron posted had him apologizing to his wife for “casting her in an unfavorable light” and to his Facebook friends for “attempting to mislead them.”
He says that in addition to standing up for his rights, he stopped posting the apology “because it forced me to make false statements.”
The estranged wife’s attorney, Joel Moskowitz, said he was disappointed that Byron did not get any jail time.
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oneforGod
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 7:23pmThe judge who ‘sentenced’ this punishment is just as psychotic as the mans ex wife.
Report Post »burnteye86
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:52pmHell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Also, the judge knew he was wrong and going to lose this one. That’s why he backed down.
Report Post »burnteye86
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:54pmYes, the judge DID back down. I’ve never seen a judge accept anything less than he orders.
Report Post »WeHaveRights
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:27pmSince I happen to know him and have the original post that started all of this I will share it for you….
“I think it is time for everyone to know the horror I’ve been through this year. My wife and I separated on January 17th, 2011 – after an argument we had over my career as a photographer. She accused me of cheating on her with a woman I’ve never even met and became physically violent with me. I tried to restrain her by the ankle when she started kicking me. She then proceeded to call the police and tried to get them to arrest me and have me removed from my home. (You should hear how calm she is in the 911 call, it makes you realize that this whole thing was likely premeditated) When the police inspected her and found no evidence of any harm or physical violence, they refused to arrest me or even press charges. She became even more enraged and left our home with our child. Over the next few days – she filed false domestic violence changes against me – along with a false Civil Protection Order – (With a full page of description believing that she‘d been cheated on by me and one sentence claiming I’d injured her ankle when I grabbed it). Shortly thereafter – I was arrested and went to jail for ‘domestic violence’. There I was, a man with no prior criminal record – barely as much as a traffic violation – sleeping on a concrete bench with thugs and gangsters in the Hamilton Co. Justice Center.”
Continued….
Report Post »WeHaveRights
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:34pm“I never returned to my home – and I’ve lost access to nearly all of my possessions. Nearly all of my clothes, furniture, memories, artwork, everything I’ve worked for the past 20 years – still at her house. After several months – I was eventually able to have my day in court in front of Judge Fanon Rucker – where I was finally acquitted of her frivolous charges. The Civil Protection Order still stands, however – and I am unable to see my son Jonathan Edward. I’ve missed his first birthday, learning to walk, talk, crawl, play, grow. Finally, this past Saturday – I was able to have a TWO hour visit at my home with a supervisor. I had to pay a stranger $80 to stay in my home and observe me while I got to see my son for this short time. I’ve worked for several years at Legal Aid – and I know that there is violence against women. The Violence Against Women act was put in place to help women who are in need – and are in danger of real physical harm. If you’ve ever been beaten by you husband – there are people out there who will help make sure that you and your family are SAFE from harm. On the OTHER hand – if you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husbands life and take your son’s father away from him completely – all you need to do is say that you’re scared of you husband or domestic partner – and they’ll lock him away!”
Continued….
Report Post »WeHaveRights
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:38pm“Something needs to be done about this! What help is there for a man who is a victim of abuse? What help is there for a man who loses his family when a woman lies? If anyone out there reading this is able to help me in any way – I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been silent for nearly one year on this. NO MORE. Those f you who know me well, know that I would never harm my children or my wife. I have two boys, Zachary, 9 and Jonathan 1 – they’ve been separated as a result of this as well. It took a great deal of courage to pour my heart out here on facebook and get this out- but I can’t do this alone anymore. I can’t take another day of being separated from my little boy – missing days that can never be replace – ever. I am no a criminal – I am a good father.”
Report Post »WeHaveRights
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 6:42pm“Something needs to be done about this! What help is there for a man who is a victim of abuse? What help is there for a man who loses his family when a woman lies? If anyone out there reading this is able to help me in any way – I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been silent for nearly one year on this. NO MORE. Those of you who know me well, know that I would never harm my children or my wife. I have two boys, Zachary, 9 and Jonathan 1 – they’ve been separated as a result of this as well. It took a great deal of courage to pour my heart out here on facebook and get this out- but I can’t do this alone anymore. I can’t take another day of being separated from my little boy – missing days that can never be replaced – ever. I am not a criminal – I am a good father.”
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 2:29pmTwo separate Judicial Officials from the Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court have determined that Mark Byron did commit an act of Domestic Violence against his wife (Case from January 17, 2011 – which is currently on appeal). His negative Facebook comments AGAINST HIS SON & his wife started on November 23, 2011. This is not an innocent, mistreated man. He is a little man bully.
Report Post »WeekendAtBernankes
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 3:03pmDoesn’t matter. Can’t force someone to apologize to someone else every day. Who does this judge think he is? Mom?
Report Post »sexyvixen21
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 10:08amHis ex-wife needs to grow some t*ts, and the judge needs to grow a pair.
Report Post »RED-DAWN
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 8:20amOh, and just for the record, I would have told that judge to KISS MY A$$
Report Post »RED-DAWN
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 8:19amI went through some similar crap when I divorced ten years ago. I found out my, then estranged, wife was randomly calling the police in the middle of the night screaming into the phone that I was outside her house trying to break in! Lucky for me, I own my own business and was able to prove with receipts that on EVERY night she claimed this happened, I was over a hundred miles away, working.
Amazingly enough, they didn’t arrest her for filing a false police report….. I thought it would never end.
Report Post »Larry E
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 6:25pmThe wife is likely a feminist who figures that keeping “her” son from his father is only fair and right, and anything he says in complaint is just not right. Men are all bad after all, and the aggravated ex-wife can’t be wrong. But he‘ll likely take it in the shorts through alimony and child support payments so she’ll come out smelling like a rose and if she keeps him from seeing his son that won’t bother the court.
Report Post »VicksVaporub
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 6:48pmThe judge didn‘t say everybody else couldn’t trash the guy’s wife on their Facebook pages.
Report Post »DSTSS2010
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:54pmAny bets as to whether Judge Sieve is a Democrat appointee? Sieve, funny name; a devise for straining (the Constitution in this case)..
Report Post »red_white_blue2
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 2:41pmGive me the Jail time! Freedom of Speech needs to be preserved at ALL COSTS!
Report Post »FASTCOMPANY
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 2:09pmThe Tree of Liberty…
Report Post »freedomisasfreedomdoes
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 1:17pmI’m guessing the soon to be ex-wife found this out without being his “friends” with him on Facebook. So she must of found this out through a 3rd partry–some potential “mutual” friend. How is this harassment or mental abuse put on her? She either listened to the 3rd party and/or saw the post from their facebook page. So the quote unquote mental abuse and harassment was of her choosing.
Report Post »bane73
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:24amThe Judge’s FB page: http://www.facebook.com/JonSieve
Report Post »Unstable Phenomenon
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 12:16pmFree speech, we don’t need no stinking free speech. It’s just amazing how the left have no problem taking away freedom of speech from other people, but if the right even hints at it, everybody is up in arms.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:23amIf I had been him, I would have stopped after one week. Jail, or no.
Report Post »krisiniL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:50amI don‘t see how he violated the protective order based on what’s written here. It is true that many people (male and female alike) make false allegations to grab custody or property through an ex parte order of protection. Also, it’s not that easy to say “he just should have gone to jail.” What happens then? He loses his job, can’t pay his child support, and then goes to jail again for that? The guy may be a jerk, but the First Amendment still applies to him.
Report Post »maccow
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:52amIts a good thing that the wife, speaking through her hired attorney, when it was said that the spouse should have received jail time, wasn’t being vindictive or anything. “Like my mamma always said, vindictive is as vindictive does.”
Report Post »BSimpson
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:56amYou’re so ignorant it sickens me. “May be a jerk” GTFO with that bullcrap you are in no position to judge that mans’ demeanor. Not only that, men only gain custody 10% of the time. Women blatantly use, over and over, DV and “he threatened me” to get their way if a man so much as even puts up a fight for custody. How you could think a man could get away with false allegations of threating behavior on the womans part, given how misandric the courts are, is entirely beyond me.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 1:07pmThe man gets punished for berating the ex on facebook while the wife does the same but in person.
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 1:29pmI’ll tell you the absolute worst part of this is that this B1TCH is using her son as leverage over her husband. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, who does this does not deserve to be a parent…period! The rest of this is really of no consiquence when a child is put in the middle. She can take his money, his dignity, his good name, but when she took his son, she became a terrorist, for lack of a better term.
Report Post »There are few things in this world that can anger me into derogatory name calling, but this is at the top of that short list.
cemerius
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:24amAhhhh Sharia and now Facebook law??? This is going absolutley viral!!! Men are being destroyed in Divorce Court and now more proof of the humiliation!!!!
Report Post »Servant Of YHVH
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:51amI agree 100% cemerius, this is getting ridiculous with the court getting involved with a marital situation. I feel that this guy was wrong for saying what he did, it is still none of the courts business. By the judge deciding that it was “domestic violence” by saying something bad shows that he is a fool.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 11:19amI agree with both of you.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:57pmServant-
Report Post »Actually, it would seem to me, what the guy posted was pretty accurate.
He should never have posted any apologies.
belnumcree
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:22amI don’t know that I agree that his free speech was violated. He wasn’t forced. He was given free choice. He could choose to pay the fine and serve the sentence. But was given an option to apologize. If the court order had stated that and only that, I would agree. But he could have easily chosen to serve the sentence and pay the fine. Though it does seem a bit too much like parenting. “You apologize to your brother or your grounded.” I guess if a person doesn’t want to act like an adult, they shouldn’t expect to be treated as one either.
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:29amSo you thinik a month in jail and 500 dollars is a “choice”? No big deal? Yeah…after that month is over he no longer has a job and loses everything too? So, what kind of “child support” or “alimony” would the woman get then?? The wife is pathetic too for finding the posting “traumatic” and acted like a child as well!!!
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:52amHow can a man or anyone for that matter be convicted of domestic violence for typing their feelings online? George Washington once said that free speech is the right of a man to speak what he is thinking without fear of reprisal, or more correctly, to speak without thinking at all. Of course I have paraphrased, but when we start to punish men for non-violent offenses like they were committing violence upon others, then our judicial system is broken and should be torn down and rebuilt. Quite frankly, I am sick of the feminist agenda that has made men second class citizens in their own home, marriage, and in the life of their children. I have seen perfectly capable and civil men stripped of their parental rights and even their right to defend their own family through onerous court actions perpetuated through female lies and manipulation of the court system. One of my father’s friends even committed suicide after his wife had a court take away all of his parental rights and he was faced with never seeing his children again. There is no doubt that this man should not have been berating his child, but what would drive a man or any person to feel such animosity towards their own family in the first place? I have a clue and I think alot of you might as well.
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:00amThat‘s a pretty good rendition of ’extortion by force’, Belnumcree: “If you don’t do what we tell you, we’ll throw you in jail.” Typical of libs and communist sympathizers to claim that kind of attitude. That to assume such actions as akin to parenting is to not understand either: Parenting is not a democracy and children (of certain ages) do not have a voice in their governence. Half the problem with today‘s society is that too many people consider a child as having ’rights‘ to veto their parent’s authority.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 12:26pmBELNUMCREE,
Of course it is a violation of his free-speech rights. The First Amendment protects our rights to say what we will, secure that we will not face government punishments. Yes, the judge gave him a choice, but it was a choice of punishments. Simply because he was given a choice of punishments does not make it any less a violation of his free-speech.
Report Post »belnumcree
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 9:43amI believe I may have misrepresented myself, let me clarify.
A June court order prohibited Byron from causing his wife physical or mental abuse, harassment or annoyance. She asked in December that he be found in contempt after learning of the Facebook comments.
The question is, was the law violated?
If Yes, was the sentence applicable?
If Yes, was an unforced alternative given?
If Yes, did the defendant accept the alternative freely in place of the original sentence?
Then no, IMO free speech wasn’t violated. Doesn’t mean the whole thing was right though.
Now, if the topic is “was the original court order just?“ or ”was he actually in violation?”
As to the first, I feel that there is way too much government attempting to legislate morality already, and, as a Christian, believe God has done a much better job than men.
As to the second, I don’t know. My personal belief is:
Proverbs 21:23
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
(Though I have trouble with those myself as I tend toward arguing and sarcasm very quickly)
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:15am.
Report Post »Dude you should have just gone to jail……….
SgtB
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:58amAnd you are the reason why our society is going down the tubes. All that this man said was “If you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husband‘s life and take your son’s father away from him completely — all you need to do is say you‘re scared of your husband or domestic partner and they’ll take him away.”
Now, I don’t know where you come from, but that is not a threat, abuse, or annoyance. It is called the truth. In today’s legal and judicial system, men have no parental rights and are treated as second class citizens. For some reason, the world hates a single father and rejoices at the mere mention of a single mother. The judicial system is the problem along with incredulous federal laws and regulations.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 11:16am.
Report Post »I don’t know where your coming from, but I’m on his side………
BSimpson
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:13amI will not comply!
Another example of the war on men. Too bad it took him 26 days to grow the balls enough to do this.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:54amUnfortunately he’s right, all a woman has to do is say she’s afraid of her husband. I know this, also unfortunately, from experience. I was going through PTSD and putting all my negative emotions on my husband. I told police I was afraid of him (which, in my then state of mind, I was, but for no good reason) and had them stand by while I removed all my stuff from the house. I later called and said he had a gun in the house and had called me crying and I feared for his life. Luckily for him and me, it resolved with me getting treatment and we remarried.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:06amYou’re lucky that he stuck around. If my wife ever started throwing false allegations of abuse or threats at me, she wouldn’t need the police to help her get all her stuff because it would either be on the lawn by the time she got home or I would be on my way to Alaska to work on one of those crab boats. Either way, she wouldn’t have to deal with me ever again. PTSD or not, you shouldn’t have lied and treated him like a criminal.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:54amOnce again we see an out of control justice who does as he pleases.
Report Post »AJAYW
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:48amI would have told that fat faced judge to screw himself from the start.
Report Post »randy
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:08amThis Judge needs to be tossed out on his A$$!
Report Post »randy
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 9:15amDoesn‘t surprise me that he’s a RINO
Judge Jon Sieve
Report Post »Domestic Relations Division
800 Broadway
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-946-9006
http://www.hamilton-co.org/domestic
bane73
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:24amHere‘s Jon’s FB page… notice I didn’t say “Honorable Jon Sieve”… http://www.facebook.com/JonSieve
Report Post »