John Caylor
Why have I been reluctant to report on John Burt Caylor's arrest for reporting on expunged court records of a federal law clerk in Mobile? For one, my research indicates Caylor' arrest was proper, that he did violate Alabama's expungement law. For another, Caylor has publicly stabbed me in the back when I was at my most vulnerable -- an act that, like most people so targeted, I did not appreciate.I don't really know John Caylor, but I generally have admired his work from a distance. His tales of darkness and intrigue, mostly in southeast Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, make for fascinating reading. While I can't vouch for their accuracy, they tend to have the ring of truth to me; it's not hard for me to imagine that southeast Alabama and northwest Florida form one of the most corrupt corridors in the country.
Caylor and I have spoken only once, via telephone. The conversation came after I had obtained a photo of homophobic U.S. Circuit Judge Bill Pryor that had appeared at a gay-porn Web site in the late 1990s. I stored the photo for "safe keeping" on a photo storage/sharing site (yes, I know now that was a mistake), only to find it posted the next morning on Caylor's Facebook page.
It appeared to me that my work product had been stolen, and when I reached Caylor by phone, I let him know in angry tones that I was not pleased. He explained what he thought had happened, that he did not steal anything, and I accepted his explanation, apologizing for my original angry tone.
The primary memory I have of our discussion is that Caylor said he was related to former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley. Caylor said he had worked on at least one Baxley political campaign and knew that powerful interests had obtained indisputable evidence of an act in Las Vegas that had more or less neutered Baxley as an opponent of racist/crooked individuals and entities.
I left the conversation thinking Caylor and I still were on good terms, although I never have figured out how the Pryor photo wound up on Caylor's Facebook page.
I was arrested "for blogging" a few weeks later and spent five months in the Shelby County Jail. Not long after my release in late March 2014, my wife, Carol, said that during the time I was incarcerated, Caylor wrote a vicious article about me; someone apparently had sent it to her.
Carol did not remember where it had been published, but I tracked it down to Caylor's Facebook page. I was astonished by such a nasty attack from someone I thought was a friend -- or at least a pleasant acquaintance. I also was astonished that the piece was so poorly and unprofessionally written, sounding like the work of someone who was "a few bricks shy of a load."
Here is Caylor's handiwork, published on October 25, 2013, two days after my arrest. I'm republishing it here, with no editing or alterations. In the first sentence, Caylor misspells my name, and it only goes downhill from there:
Roger Schuler of the - Blog Legal Schnauzer - has been arrested for not attending a court hearing to answer to Civil Contempt of Court in one of several lawsuits filed against him for publishing Libelous and malicious stories against private citizens. The following is an my response to a message from one of my Facebook friends about Schuler - Dear Friend - I've been doing extensive research on Roger Schuler and his attempts to get everyone involved in his personal life to help him bring down people he has earmarked as his enemies. AT This point I think he's a plant by Karl Rove and Russian mafia's Milton McGregor to bring people around him down. You know the guy comes up with some legitimate investigative fruits every now and then - but - he uses people's personal and family lives against them - people who have fired him for his insubordination at work from UAB as he attacked then president Carol Garrison for having an affair with another University President in another state. Personally I don't give a good shit about who fucks who - as a professional journalist I've never reported on people's private sex life unless they were pedophiles or displayed in a pedophile mail out like the one Schuler got from former Alabama Attorney Tommy Gallion of federal judge Bill Pryor. Schuler or someone with access to his computer posted that totally naked photo on my Facebook page and shortly afterword Schuller telephoned me to "scream and holler" at me for being a No good Son of a Bitch for breaking into his computer and stealing the photo and his work. Problem was with the photo is Judge Pryor's age at the time of the photo and Flyer publication had me thinking someone was setting me up for Kiddie Porn. I reported the Facebook posting to the FBI and IC3 in a criminal complaint to cover my ass in case Pryor was 15 at the time of the photo. But Schuler is a fucking hot head and not a God damn reporter if he was he'd answer the "Civil Libel" complaints against him instead of ducking out and hiding out avoiding legal process - Schuler gives everyone a black eye by not facing the people he writes about ruining the private lives of people who are private and not public citizens. If someone sued me over defamation and libel "I've never been sued for Libel or defamation", I'd welcome a chance to prove my credibility and get rights to dig into my allegations against them with a court order. But Schuler has used false lawsuits usually filed by him to fuck over people with his bullshit. The lawsuit filed by Jessica Garrison apparently another person in the Garrison family alleges that Ms. Garrison demanded a retraction from Schuler for his lies and allegations she was fucking her old boss - Alabama Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. The latest Lawsuit against Schuler comes on the heels of that one and is based on the same lie as his other one Liberty Duke was fucking Rob Riley. As much as I dislike Riley I hate Schuler more for shitting in the Muddy Water I must dig into to investigate these cases tinged with Schuler's very public idea that all his enemies are whoring around on their wives. I used to have a Private Investigators Ticket in Alabama and Florida and I can tell you that infidelity is a big problem every where. But a bigger problem is that "Criminal Libel" will buy you serious time in the slammer. As Andy has pointed out in "Supreme Court - Times v. Sullian" the First amendment doesn't protect speech with MALICE. What pisses me off is that everyone wants to help poor Roger and he's a Godamed Blogger - Not a real journalist - a real journalist is more than happy to publish documents from people we write about to have as evidence down the road toward the discovering the truth - something Roger is about to be butt fucked for not doing.
Does Caylor come across as a foul-mouthed, ignorant whack job? That's what he sounds like to me. Let's address a few of his "assertions," highlighted above:
(1) I was not lawfully arrested for contempt of court. Carol and I never were served with the Riley/Duke lawsuit; you can't be in contempt of a court that has no jurisdiction over you. I had filed a motion to quash service and was waiting on the ruling when deputies broke into our house, beat me up, and arrested me with no apparent warrant. Also, an attorney reviewed the sealed court file and found no summons had been issued at the time of my arrest. I was arrested for failing to attend a hearing for which I never was summoned, by a court that had no authority to summon me.
(2) My reporting never has been proven to be libelous or malicious in a court of law. And the lawsuits did not involve private figures. By almost any definition, Jessica Garrison (as campaign manager for Luther Strange, a statewide political candidate) and Rob Riley (as son of former governor Bob Riley) are public figures.
(3) Caylor thinks I'm "a plant by Karl Rove and Russian mafia's Milton McGregor"? People have been sent to institutions for making less nutty statements than that.
(4) Insubordination at work, at UAB? I never did anything insubordinate at work, and no one with the slightest credibility ever claimed I did. My former boss, Pam Powell -- whose narcissism rivals that of Donald Trump -- admitted in my grievance hearing she had no evidence that I had violated any UAB policy. As for Carol Garrison, she did have an extramarital affair with the president of the University of Tennessee, and that has been widely reported in the press. It helped cost the UT president his job and should have cost Garrison her job. Whether Caylor cares about such issues, these things have consequences and put institutions at risk.
(5) Tommy Gallion did not give me a photo of Bill Pryor. Tommy Gallion has never given me anything.
(6) Caylor thinks I, or someone else, posted the Pryor photo from my computer to his Facebook page? I assume Caylor still is grounded enough in reality to know that's not true. I don't recall him even suggesting such a thing happened in my conversation with him. I would not know how to begin to pull off such a stunt, and I can't imagine why I would want to.
(7) I did answer the civil complaints against me -- directly in the Jessica Garrison case and indirectly via a motion to quash service in the Riley/Duke case. That's a matter of public record; Caylor claims to be a superb investigator, so he should be able to look that up. I have faced the people who have accused me of defamation, and that also is a matter of public record.
(8) "Schuler has used false lawsuits, usually filed by him to fuck over people with his bullshit"? Does that sound like the work of a healthy mind? Not to me. When Caylor can't express himself adequately, which is often, he just cusses a lot. And false lawsuits? No legal complaint I've ever filed has been proven to be false. If Caylor thinks any have been, I'd like to see him offer up an example.
(9) Caylor seems to think Jessica Garrison and Carol Garrison are related. They aren't.
(10) Caylor hates Rob Riley, but he hates me more? Gee, that makes a lot of sense.
(11) I have a degree in journalism and more than 35 years of professional experience, which is a lot closer to being a "real journalist" than John Caylor ever will reach. Caylor almost sounds bitter here that I got arrested, and he didn't. Is that the thinking of a true sicko?
When I read Caylor's Facebook post, my first thought was: Did someone pay Caylor to write this garbage? I still wonder about that, but given the signs that Caylor is playing with a few loose shingles, I'm not sure he needs any financial motivation to produce trash.
I will, however, say this about Caylor: Based on his recent scribblings, he seems to have a dim view of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Donald Trump's attorney-general nominee. I hold a similar view of Sessions, so I tend to think Caylor has not completely lost it.
If it was Caylor's desire to get arrested, it appears his wish has come true. A number of folks, many of them probably well intentioned, have tried to build a groundswell of support for Caylor. But his little Facebook hit piece should give folks a taste of what John Caylor is all about -- and make them consider whether he is worth their sympathy, especially since his arrest probably is based on a true violation of law.
