Court Blocks Media Coverage at Hearing for Young Man Charged with Terrorism for Posting Rifle Pic
Shane Trejo
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A Michigan court has denied a media coverage request for the trial of Lucas Gerhard, the former Lake Superior State University student who was hit with terror charges last year for posting a picture of his rifle on social media. He could serve up to 20 years in prison if he is ultimately convicted.
Gerhard’s attorney Nicholas Somberg wrote on Facebook that his request for the Chippewa County Circuit Court proceedings to be recorded and broadcast over the internet was capriciously denied, despite the fact that there is widespread interest in the case due to its broader implications on the 1st and 2nd Amendment of the Constitution.
“My request for electronic media coverage for [Gerhard’s trial] was denied. No explanation.” Somberg wrote in the post.
The court will consider the motion to dismiss Gerhard’s case tomorrow, June 11 in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Somberg made a Facebook event urging people to go to the proceeding to show their support.
“We have filed a motion to dismiss the case based on the 1st amendment and No Probable Cause for a “Terrorism” charge,” he wrote. “This hearing will be Live in-person and open to the public. We need all the court support we can get!”
Gerhard supporters will be wearing custom-made “No Snowflakes” t-shirts to admonish the court for their overreach. The offending caption that Gerhard made in a Snapchat post reads: “This outta make the snowflakes melt Aye?” This along with the picture of his rifle triggered a weak, left-wing female on campus and began Gerhard’s hellish legal ordeal, which has already resulted in him spending 83 days behind bars.
Big League Politics broke the story in January about how the courts have railroaded Gerhard to send a message to conservatives who want to boldly exercise their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights.
Lucas Gerhard, a 20-year-old student who was enrolled at Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., has been charged with making terroristic threats and faces years in prison for posting a picture of a legally-obtained rifle on social media.
Gerhard posted a picture in Aug. 2019 of his new firearm to a private Snapchat group with classmates, claiming that his AR-15 rifle would “make the snowflakes melt” when he returned to campus. The reference meant that far-left students would be triggered by his possession of the rifle and it would literally melt snow, as the LSSU campus is located in Michigan’s upper peninsula renowned for its icy conditions.
“Taking this bad boy up. This ought to make the snowflakes melt a — and I mean snowflakes as in snow,” he wrote on social media, according to a transcript of the preliminary examination obtained by Big League Politics.
One classmate in the private group – who stated in court proceedings that she did not feel threatened by the post – showed the picture to a left-leaning female student, who copied the image on her phone before they filed a complaint to the district supervisor. It was then kicked up to campus public safety, who got Sault Ste. Marie police involved in the matter.
“I seen the picture, and when he said like make the snowflakes melt, it kind of made me assume that, um, kind of like as with the gun and shoot other civilians and stuff with it,” the woman who initiated the report said during questioning. She also mentioned that media coverage about mass shootings contributed to her panic when seeing the weapon and admitted to having prior political disputes with Gerhard over political matters…
LSSU President Rodney S. Hanley sent out a self-congratulatory letter for removing the so-called terror threat despite the fact that Lucas was allowed to walk around campus freely after the complaint was filed. They also gave Lucas his room key and allowed him access to virtually every building on campus while announcing nothing to the campus about the complaint.
Hanley called on other students to similarly spy on their peers to police wrongthink on campus in his e-mail.
“Today at approximately 8:45 a.m., Sault Sainte Marie Police and Public Safety officers removed an individual from campus. The individual is allegedly responsible for a social media posting that was potentially threatening to the safety and well-being of the LSSU community,” Hanley wrote.
“We are certain that the individual involved is no longer in the campus vicinity. The Public Safety Department takes this type of messaging seriously, and the University is working closely with the Sault Sainte Marie Police Department during the investigation,” he added…
The prosecutorial team has made it clear to Gerhard’s attorney that the intent is to take Lucas’ 2nd Amendment rights away from him for life. He spent a total of 83 days behind bars before he was finally allowed to be tethered back home on Nov. 13. He has already paid a tremendous cost for exercising his rights, and the trial has not even started.
“Mr. Gerhard did admit that he was referring to a civilian population known as like Democrats or liberal millennials; that he was looking to melt the snowflakes,” the prosecution argued during the preliminary exam.
“Obviously, melt can be interpreted by a factual basis. Your Honor, I think that that would be more so a question of fact for a jury,” the prosecution continued. “But, obviously, the people are intending that this would be melting and would be an act of a school shooting. A school shooting is clearly violent. Often times people are injured or murdered in school shootings. It’s inherently dangerous to human life.”
The prosecution also noted that “it’s not a defense… that the defendant did not have the intent or ability to commit terrorism,” showing how the justice system is being rigged against Lucas. Lucas’ father believes that LSSU is pressuring the prosecutor’s office to make an example of his son, possibly to satisfy the anti-conservative blood lust of the campus administrators in the age of Trump.
Big League Politics will continue to cover Gerhard’s case as it develops. His GoFundMe page can be found here.
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