Larry Bushart, a retired Perry County police officer in Tennessee, has reached a settlement with local officials after a criminal case stemming from Facebook memes about conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Officials agreed to pay $835,000 to end the lawsuit, Bushart said in a statement announcing the deal Wednesday. He said the outcome vindicated his First Amendment rights and that he was looking forward to returning to his family.
The legal fight began after authorities arrested Bushart in September over posts he made on Facebook that joked about Kirk’s killing. Bushart, according to the federal lawsuit he filed in December, spent 37 days in jail and lost his postretirement job during that period. He also said the prosecution caused him to miss his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter.
While online backlash over Kirk’s death led some people across the country to lose jobs over social media comments, Bushart’s case stood out to attorneys as a rare example in which online speech resulted in a felony prosecution. During his detention, Bushart’s bail was set at $2 million before he was released, and authorities later dropped the felony charge in October.
The memes that drew the arrest included text and imagery Bushart posted about Kirk’s killing, and the posts prompted concern in Bushart’s community near Perry County High School. The Facebook material referenced an Iowa school shooting that occurred at Perry High School in 2024, and Bushart’s statements and the meme’s explanation tied the quote—“We have to get over it”—to Trump’s 2024 remarks after that event.
In a statement to The Tennessean, Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems said investigators believed Bushart was “fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.” Weems also told news outlets at the time that most of Bushart’s “hate memes” were lawful free speech, even as residents were alarmed by the school-shooting reference in the posts.
After the settlement announcement, Bushart said he was “pleased” his rights had been vindicated and emphasized that “the people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy.” He also said he was “looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family,” positioning the case as a conclusion to a prosecution that he said went too far.
Cary Davis, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that helped represent Bushart, tied the settlement to broader First Amendment concerns. Davis said in a statement that it was “in times of turmoil and heightened tensions” when the “national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” and he argued that when “government officials fail that test,” the Constitution provides recourse.
Perry County Mayor John Carroll did not immediately respond to a message left with his office seeking an interview.