- April 26, 2024
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Andrew Shirvell, a Palm Coast attorney elected Dec. 17 to the position of secretary of the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee, was the subject of a national scandal in 2010 for harassing and defaming a gay college student while serving as Michigan’s assistant attorney general.
Shirvell was fired from that position, and in 2012 was ordered to pay the student — Christopher Armstrong, the University of Michigan’s first openly gay student body president — a $4.5 million civil settlement, according to numerous national news reports from the time. The University of Michigan was Shirvell’s alma mater.
Former Flagler REC Chairman Dave Sullivan said he was aware of the case and believed others in the local Republican Party were as well.
But, "Since he’s been here, there have been no problems,” Sullivan said. “There’s no recent history of anything here in Flagler County. He’s been a good loyal worker, and he’s going to be the secretary. So far he’s done a good job. Hard worker.” Current Flagler County REC Chairwoman Anne-Marie Shaffer, who replaced Sullivan Dec. 17, had not returned a request for comment at the time this story was published.
The district court in Michigan that ordered the $4.5 million settlement found that Shirvell had engaged in stalking, defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress when he created a blog called "Chris Armstrong Watch” on which he called Armstrong “a radical homosexual activist, racist, elitist and liar” and “Satan’s representative” on the student assembly, and accused him of engaging in sex acts on a playground and in a church.
"My activities were never a problem until the media started twisting them into things they were not," Shirvell wrote in a comment to the Palm Coast Observer. "The obscene $4.5 million judgment is currently on appeal and I am being represented by the Chicago-based Thomas More Society and some of the top First Amendment attorneys in the country. I am confident that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will overturn this outrageous violation of my First Amendment rights."
Shirvell was mocked in a “The Daily Show” segment in which he appeared in an interview in an attempt to defend himself, and Anderson Cooper did a segment on the case, calling it “one of the strangest stories we’ve reported on recently.”
“This is a public official — a grownup — fixating on a 21-year-old college student, dedicating a blog to vilifying him, scouring his Facebook page, making unproven allegations,” Cooper said in the segment.
A Michigan Civil Service Commission Employee Relations Board decision said that Shirvell "was fixated with Armstrong, his sexuality, his background and all aspects of his life," and that Shirvell "intentionally outed at least one student via his blog."
Shirvell attended events Armstrong was attending, tried to get him fired from an internship, protested outside his house, and in one case followed him to a party, photographed it, called police to complain about it, then "published a blog post titled, 'Bombshell: Ann Arbor police raid Chris Armstrong's Out-of-Control Gay Rush Welcome Week Party,'" according to the board decision. The police officers who arrived at the party "told Armstrong they were concerned about the man across the street taking pictures of the house," according to the decision.
The decision said that Shirvell's actions "moved beyond mere protest into areas of bizarre and arguably criminal behavior."
"I am continuing to fight my termination, which violated my First Amendment rights, through the Michigan Civil Service System," Shirvell wrote in a comment to the Observer. "My case is currently before the Michigan Court of Appeals."
