Mitchell Watley was arrested and charged more than a year ago after it was alleged that me terroristic threats by posting copies of a drawing in Juneau stores. It was a national story that seems to have evaporated. What happened?
On April 2, 2023, local illustrator Mitchell “Mitch” Watley was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat (a felony) on the bases of “notes” left in local stores and in the State Building. This story made national news at the time and came soon after a transgender murderer slaughtered three children and three adults in a Christian school in Memphis. We follow-up to answer the question, “what the hell happened to this story?”
The news out of Juneau jumped straight to national news wires. Mitch Watley had been arrested for posting “terroristic” notes that were “anti-trans” and “threatening” in the days after a transgender monster slaughtered three children and three adults in a Memphis Christian school. Local media outlets refused, without explanation, to publish these notes. A Google search for the notes comes up empty. Indeed, the last news article about the case on Google dates to last year. This story just evaporated.
According to court records, Watley’s case has been continued at least EIGHT times (for more than a year). Court records state that the case has been continued each time at a “readiness hearing.”
Lawyers we found at the courthouse were reluctant to discuss the matter. One lawyer, who agreed to provide background on the condition of immunity, said “it sounds like a load of bullshit to me.” He continued, “I think a whole lot a people in this silly town jumped to conclusions in this case. Why else would the media tank this story or hide the evidence from the public?”
A bailiff said he had never seen anything like this. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said. “We need to get these cases heard so that the public and the parties can maintain faith in the system. When all this secret stuff starts happening, you know something’s wrong.”
A passing paralegal caught our attention. “Given that a transgendered murderer had recently killed a bunch of people, wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that maybe Watley wasn’t threatening anybody, but that he might have been warning people that an unstable transgendered person might copycat the crime in Juneau? I mean, how is that a “threat? That’s just a warning. Watley might be a kook, but that doesn’t make him a criminal.”
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 7th at 10:30 am. Perhaps between now and then some of our local government-funded “journalists” can put a bit of effort into figuring out what happened with this case.
Leave a Reply