Online Author Claims First Amendment Rights Violated

DANIELSVILLE, GA March 8, 2004--Online Author Claims First Amendment Rights Violated

The First Amendment protects all kinds of expression, from the most abrasive criticism of government by those operating outside of its powers, to the assertions of government whistleblowers who are privy to its most detailed inner workings.

Our culture is rich in criticism of the government by writers, comics, and journalists, and the news is full of stories about "whistleblowers," people who expose the illegal activities of government and corporate organizations. But what happens when the critics stretch the limits of criticism? And what happens to the whistleblowers in the aftermath of their whistleblowing?

Author and educator Preston Coleman says he is living proof that government agencies occasionally punish both critics and whistleblowers. He claims that his career has been severely damaged because of his protected speech, and perhaps even more disturbing, that he has twice become the subject of harassment at the hands of law enforcement officials because of his very public criticism of the War on Drugs.

Coleman's story is pretty complicated, but he says it can all be verified using public records.

It begins in 1999, when Coleman was working for the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education (GDTAE.) He was in charge of auditing adult education programs across the state, in part to ensure that the enrollment statistics on which funding is based were honest and accurate.

"Every program director in the state was told publicly that if I found any fraud, they would be fired," Coleman says. "I didn't find any programs cheating, but I did catch my bosses cheating, and I reported it to the GDTAE's legal office."

Shortly thereafter, both Coleman and another employee who did similar audits, Dr. Carla Bryan, were ostracized, harassed, and then fired.

Coleman sued, claiming that his First Amendment rights had been violated. He was subsequently investigated by GDTAE, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and oddly enough, the Georgia Real Estate Commission (GREC).

These investigations only helped substantiate his case, and Coleman eventually won an out-of-court settlement of $67,500. But his troubles didn't end there.

While his lawsuit was in progress, he began teaching English courses and developing websites at Athens Technical College, a division of GDTAE. The two jobs brought in a comfortable income, and Coleman soon purchased a home in the area.

The academic quarter immediately after he won his settlement, however, Coleman was told that he would only be allowed to teach remedial English classes as long as he chose to stay at ATC; then, his web development contracts were terminated; and finally, even his remedial English courses weren't renewed, leaving him in financial and professional limbo.

"I was never told that the courses and contracts were being terminated; they just let me figure that out over time. And my students were told that I was ‘taking some time off,' a blatant lie," he says. "Ironically, during my last quarter at ATC, I had volunteered to teach an overload of five classes and wound up with faculty evaluations averaging 4.98 out of 5."

Coleman believes his faculty evaluations were among the highest ever received at the college, and he had been given only praise and gratitude from his superiors up until that time.

That is, until the college learned about his lawsuit and resulting settlement.

He filed a claim of unjust termination, which was dismissed, but chose not to pursue another lawsuit. Dozens of his students subsequently stood up for him with ATC administrators, with no response.

Instead of suing or looking for another job teaching, he took a chance and went back to the occupation he loves the most—writing political satire.

Already a Libertarian and a harsh critic of overbearing and intrusive government, he started two websites that feature his stinging brand of political satire. Both www.RebelHoller.com and www.RealStupidNews.com aggressively attack what Coleman believes to be excessive and unjust government activities.

Among his favorite targets are Attorney General John Ashcroft, the War on Drugs, and the leaders of both parties at the federal level. His satirical short stories and news parodies don't pull any punches, and they've slowly been attracting an audience of like-minded readers.

Recently, Coleman was apprised that federally-funded multi-county Drug Task Force agents have been questioning his neighbors about his activities and about the amount of traffic at his Madison County, Georgia, home. At least twice, law enforcement agents have come onto his property, he presumes without search warrants.

The implication is that Coleman may be dealing drugs, a charge he finds ridiculous. He claims that his financial records are transparently clean and that he neither uses nor sells illegal drugs of any kind.

The mere fact of an investigation doesn't prove harassment, of course. But the exact same thing happened over a decade ago, when Coleman was a 29-year-old self-described "hippie" operating a small press in Athens called Piccolo Press, also devoted to stinging political satire. He freely admits that at the time, he smoked marijuana and grew small amounts of the illegal weed in his bedroom closet.

He also wrote and published scathing satires of the war on drugs.

On August 12, 1992, four armed members of a federally-funded multi-county Drug Task Force entered his home and seized three marijuana plants. A helicopter had been seen hovering near tree level above his home just days before, almost certainly to take infrared pictures of the small cottage in order to locate the plants' light source. A detective later claimed that Coleman had been under surveillance for six months.

"It seemed a bit much to spend what must have been tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating me and raiding my home," Coleman recalls. "And sending four armed men to carry three plants out of my home was pretty silly.

"They caught me red handed, though, and I was knowingly breaking the law."

Coleman was never arrested, he believes because the Task Force wasn't willing to make their excesses public. He soon moved to Iowa to pursue a doctorate in communications and began tapering off his use of marijuana.

Fast forward eleven and a half years. Now Coleman is a neighborhood activist who spent much of the last year trying to rid his community of a convicted methamphetamine dealer who was making him and all his neighbors miserable with steady, daily traffic and repeated violations of the county noise ordinances.

"At least three different neighbors complained over and over again about what was pretty obviously gong on there," he insists. "Two were treated in a threatening way by the offending neighbor. But as far as we know, nothing was ever done."

The neighbor eventually moved of his own accord, possibly as a result of the efforts of Coleman and his neighbors.

That's why he's particularly disgusted at the recent efforts of law enforcement, which he claims are completely unwarranted and may have damaged his reputation in the rural neighborhood.

"I smoked pot for many years," Coleman acknowledges, "but to my knowledge, I was only the subject of official investigations twice. Once, when I was ridiculing the War on Drugs with Piccolo Press in 1992. And again, after I quit using the drug, when I began criticizing the government with rebelholler.com and realstupidnews.com in 2003.

"I understand that when I had a marijuana garden in my closet, they had every right to come after me. But why now? They know full well that I've been trying to help them clean up a serious hard-drug problem in my neighborhood. Do they really believe I'd be doing that if I were selling drugs myself?

"It's ridiculous. And, I believe, it amounts to harassment based on the nature of my speech—my protected speech—regarding the excesses of government, and the War on Drugs in particular."

The bottom line, says Coleman, is that his career has been severely damaged and his privacy and free speech rights repeatedly violated.

"Government agencies have investigated me half to death, but all that's come of it was a settlement paid to me by one of their own agencies. Anyone who wants to can come search my home any day, any time. They can audit my finances, they can follow me 24/7, I'll even give them samples of my bodily fluids if they want.

"But I want to feel free to criticize my government without being targeted by frivolous investigations or having my career sabotaged.

"That's what our Constitution is all about. Or used to be."

Does Coleman plan to soften his criticism of the government, John Ashcroft, or the War on Drugs? Not likely.

"A tiger can't change its stripes. If anything, all of this has just given me more resolve."

Dr. Preston Coleman holds a master's degree in journalism (University of Georgia) and a doctorate in mass communication (University of Iowa.) He has taught at the University of Georgia, the University of Iowa, Athens Technical College, and Kennesaw State University.

Contact: Dr. Preston Coleman
prestoncoleman@earthlink.net
706-789-3265 (voice, fax)




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