When Sandersville resident Anne Boyd King's ex-husband refused to pick up medication from a local drugstore when she and her children were sick, King took to Facebook to vent.

“Feeling overwhelmed,” she wrote in the post about Corey King, a captain with the Washington County Sheriff's Office. “That moment when everyone in your house has the flu and you ask your kid's dad to get them (not me) more Motrin and Tylenol and he refuses.”

Angry, her former husband replied, “Take that bullshit off Facebook.” Then, in tandem with an investigator working for the district attorney, he arranged to have her arrested on a criminal defamation charge.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Macon rejected efforts by Corey King, investigator Trey Burgamy and Washington County to throw out Anne King's lawsuit against them for what she claimed was her unconstitutional arrest and malicious prosecution for exercising her constitutional free speech rights.

“Criminal defamation is not a crime under the laws of Georgia, and it has not been since the Georgia Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 1982,” Judge Marc Treadwell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia wrote in allowing the case to go forward. “Indeed, when Investigator Burgamy was asked whether he 'should have known' that criminal defamation had been held unconstitutional, he answered, 'Yes, sir.' And when asked whether he was aware of 'a single fact that supported' Ms. King's arrest, he answered, 'No, sir.'”

“Not surprisingly, the charges against Ms. King were ultimately dismissed.”

Treadwell also rejected the defendants' immunity claims and, for now, allowed Anne King's claim for punitive damages and attorney fees to stand, “because a jury may reasonably find that the defendants acted in bad faith.

“Captain King set out to have Ms. King arrested for a Facebook post he did not like,” Treadwell concluded. “A jury could reasonably find Captain King, given his law enforcement background, knew that Ms. King's post did not provide probable cause for her arrest. A jury could reasonably find Captain King enlisted Investigator Burgamy (who was not a licensed attorney) to assist him in his quest. A jury could also reasonably find Investigator Burgamy, after researching the law, knew that posting on Facebook the way Ms. King did was not a crime and most certainly did not constitute criminal defamation. Further, a jury could reasonably find that Investigator Burgamy swore to the truth of facts he did not know to be true. Given this, a jury could reasonably find that the Defendants jointly prosecuted Ms. King without probable cause.”

Cynthia Counts, Anne King's attorney and a partner at the Atlanta offices of Duane Morris, said the order vindicated her client and that her ex-husband “and his law enforcement buddy” paved the way for a trial “concerning their abuse of power.”

“Her post was not threatening, but merely vented about how Officer King refused to bring medicine for her ill children,” Counts said. “It is basic that the First Amendment does not allow the government or any individual police officer to punish a person for speech they don't like, or even that they believe is false. The court's ruling today vindicates that fundamental tenet of constitutional law, especially in finding that an arresting officer cannot get off scot-free just because a magistrate approves his unlawful application.”

Ken Hodges, president of the State Bar of Georgia who will take office as a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals in January, is co-counsel in the litigation. Hodges said Thursday that “in a thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion, Judge Treadwell made it clear that when those who hold public trust abuse their authority, they will be held accountable. These two defendants will face a jury to address their abuse of power, and Ms. King's reputation will be restored.”

Defendants' counsel Timothy Buckley III of Atlanta's Buckley Christopher had no comment on the ruling.

Treadwell's order was sharply critical of the two law enforcement officers. Treadwell also noted that Washington County Chief Magistrate Judge Ralph Todd, who is not a defendant, agreed Corey King and Burgamy could arrest Anne King and even suggested the unconstitutional defamation charge. Treadwell pointed out that the magistrate judge's legal training was “limited to 40 hours … when he first became a magistrate and 12 hours annually.”

In Georgia, magistrates in counties with populations of less than 100,000 only need a high school diploma to qualify for the bench.

In a deposition, Todd testified “that if he directed a law enforcement officer to take out an arrest warrant and the officer knew that the law on which the arrest was based was unconstitutional, he would expect the law enforcement officer to tell him so that he would not order the arrest,” Treadwell said.

According to the order, Corey King orchestrated his ex-wife's arrest after complaining to Burgamy, a personal friend, that she was “harassing him” on Facebook. Burgamy “had not seen Ms. King's Facebook post and did not know if it was true or false,” Treadwell said. In an incident report based on Corey King's complaint, Burgamy recommended charging Anne King with harassing phone calls.

Burgamy saw the Facebook post at issue for the first time in a hearing in front of Todd to determine whether there was probable cause to arrest Anne King. “Neither then nor at any other time did Investigator Burgamy make any effort to determine whether the post was false,” Treadwell wrote.

At the end of the hearing, which Corey King attended wearing a shirt emblazoned with the sheriff's department emblem, the magistrate judge advised he “felt like the defamation of character fit the crime better than harassing phone calls.” He subsequently issued the warrant, and deputies arrested Anne King, who had testified.

Treadwell determined that King was acting as a private individual, not in his capacity as a public law enforcement official, when he sought his wife's arrest, so he was able to sidestep claims that he violated his ex-wife's civil rights. But, as a result, he also had no immunity from the other civil claims against him, the judge said.

Burgamy was acting in his official capacity, and “when the evidence is considered in the light most favorable to Ms. King, Investigator Burgamy did personally participate in her unconstitutional arrest,” even though he claimed the magistrate judge ordered him to sign the affidavit for Anne King's arrest, Treadwell said.

“Investigator Burgamy once again ignores his critical role in the patently absurd, and unconstitutional, decision to arrest Ms. King for criminal defamation,” Treadwell continued. “Ignorance of the law, or the fact that the defendants thought that the plaintiff's acts constituted a crime, does not exempt a defendant from a malicious prosecution claim. … Legal advice and actions of magistrates and police officers who are not licensed attorneys do not necessarily insulate a defendant from liability for his malicious prosecution.”