Another development in the bizarre story of Seth Dunlap, the openly gay host of the weeknight sports show “The Last Lap With Seth Dunlap” on WWL Radio in New Orleans.
This week, a judge denied New Orleans police an arrest warrant for the radio host, who is accused of directing a homophobic tweet at himself from his employer’s Twitter official account in an attempt to extort millions from the station, after determining there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant the arrest.
The Times Picayune reports:
Magistrate Commissioner Robert Blackburn rejected the warrant. The sources said Blackburn didn’t find the evidence backed up a charge of extortion, which is defined as making threats to a person ‘with the intention (to) obtain anything of value.’ The extent of the threat that Dunlap is accused of making — he allegedly warned he would go “scorched earth” on the station if it didn’t accede to his settlement demands — didn’t justify the felony charge, Blackburn said.
Blackburn advised NOPD that it could still pursue a warrant for a different offense, or provide additional evidence that would support a warrant for the extortion charge. Or, of course, they can drop the investigation.
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The trouble began back in September when Dunlap was called a homophobic slur by the station’s official Twitter page after he wrote an open letter to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees about his partnership with the antigay hate group Focus on the Family.
The station conducted an internal investigation into the tweet that ultimately resulted in Dunlap being accused of writing it himself in hopes of extorting $1.8 million from his employer. His lawyer has denied the accusations.
NOLA.com reported:
The station told the NOPD that the forensic investigation found an IP address — a unique number given to a piece of hardware, such as a cellphone — connected to the tweet that was associated with Dunlap’s phone. Megan Kiefer, Dunlap’s attorney, has disputed the claims, saying the radio station has not done anything to prove them.
Dunlap’s attorney, Megan Kiefer, has maintained her client’s innocence, accusing the station of trying to “create a narrative to avoid its own culpability by implicating any innocent employee, including Seth,” and noting that Dunlap took a polygraph test that showed no indication of lying when he was asked about any involvement with the tweet.
If the accusations against him prove to be true, however, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Related: Radio host who was called gay slur by station’s Twitter page fired after refusing to resign
Bob LaBlah
The only thing a polygraph test proves is you are able to lie under pressure. Many innocent people have failed polygraph tests because of blood pressure, stuttering trying to remember things from long ago and the overall psychological drama of being hooked up to a machine whose results could determine your loss of freedom.
DarkZephyr
But so far the only verifiable “evidence” that they have that he did it himself was his exceptionally dumb a** comment about going “scorched earth”. I gotta say it certainly does sound suspicious, but its not real proof. Sounds like so far, the radio station itself continues to refuse to show proof of its own claims about finding evidence that it was him who did it, and the police investigation has yet to yield any results, one way or the other. At this point in time I am looking at both sides with the side eye. I don’t trust anybody involved, including Mr. Gay “Scorched Earth”.
nitejonboy
Until the radio station publishes it’s proof or it is verified by the police and it’s investigators, I am standing by Mr. Dunlap. All the radio station is doing is deflecting and putting the charges back onto him, while issuing no proof of it. That is why there is no warrant being issued. Thank god the law is truly following the law in this case. I hope he will be able to clear his name and sue this station if it is truly found that they are lying, which I know they are.
Brian
Well, not exactly. The warrant not being issued seems to be because the scorched Earth comment is too vague to be considered a threat of extortion. Which is correct, there is no way that should be interpreted as something that specific.
Everyone keeps saying that the station hasn’t released the proof that it was his ip address, but I’m not sure why anyone is expecting that. If there is a potential criminal case, why would you release the evidence to the media before charges are even filed?
LostMyClothesAgain
Paul Collins
DarkZephyr
Brian, its not about “releasing it to the media”, its about releasing it to the courts, to the police, to the lawyers, etc. According to Mr. Scorched Earth’s lawyer, they have not released their proof to the proper parties. That’s what makes me just as suspicious of them as I am of Dunlap. Like Nitejon, I wanted to stand by Dunlap and believe he’s innocent, but his subsequent behavior and obvious strong desire for an exorbitant sum of money makes me very leery.
sonic_source
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is in a partnership with the anti gay hate group, Focus on the Family? Seems to me that story is as big as the other.
Creamsicle
IP address does seem a little flimsy. If they can determine a MAC address or an IMEI number, that would be a lot more convincing. Those are unique identifiers determined by hardware and are harder to spoof than IP address.
IP addresses can also be dynamic and assign new addresses as needed, depending on how it is set up. Logging on to the wifi at the radio station every day, he could be assigned a new IP address every time he logs on and off (a dumb idea to begin with, if you’re trying to pody fake harassment tweets).
I don’t discount the possibility that he sent the tweet himself, but IP address is flimsy evidence for that. Someone with a basic understanding of computers could have figured out a way to post that tweet while keeping it from being traced back to them. Then again, maybe everyone at that radio station is dumb and bad at their jobs. It’s not that uncommon.
gavo92
It wouldn’t be a surprise if he lied. A lot of gay people lie nowadays just to be victims for whatever reason. It actually hurts real victims out there.