Jackson Jambalaya

A Madison County court dismissed a Petition to Perpetuate Rule 27 Testimony filed by Stuart Irby. Circuit Judge William Chapman, III threw out the lawsuit yesterday after defendants Lee Bounds and Vickie Currie argued the petition did not meet the standards of Rule 27 and that the petition was a fishing expedition for evidence to use in Mr. Irby's criminal proceedings.

Conservators for Stuart M. Irby, Sr. filed a Notice of Verified Petition for Rule 27 depositions to file testimony, on August 5 in Madison County Circuit Court. The petition stated Mr. Irby will file a suit for malicious prosecution against Lee Bounds and Madison Police Officer Vickie Currie, after the cyberstalking case against him is "terminated". The petition states the indictment against him is still pending. Earlier post with copy of petition.

The petition states Mr. Bounds is the first husband of Karen Irby. It claims Mr. Irby took "Mr. Bounds and his entire family to lunch one Sunday to celebrate the birthday" of one of his daughters (Karen and Lee's child). "Mr. Irby took several photographs of the family. Later, Mr. Irby sent Mr. Bounds photographs of Mr. Bounds' seventeen year old daughter, which he had photo-shopped by putting pictures" her face "onto the body of an adult female wearing a swimsuit."

The petition refers to the email as a "sophomoric prank" and states it was "emailed to Mr. Bounds, not to his daughter". The petition then states Mr. Bounds "emailed Mr. Irby asking if he could use Mr. Irby's condominium in Destin, Florida during his daughter's Spring Break."

Everyone is pretty much familiar with that happened after these contacts. Cyberstalking charges were filed against Mr. Irby. Further contact with Mr. Bounds and a DUI arrest led to the placement of Mr. Irby on house arrest. Mr. Irby pleaded guilty to the DUI charge and served 48 hours in jail (How many first-time offenders serve two days in jail?) . A Madison County Grand Jury indicted Mr. Irby for the cyberstalking charges. The case is scheduled to go to trial in November.

Officer Currie argued in her response the petition assumed Mr. Irby would be found not guilty. Her lawyer argued Rule 27 indeed allows a party to obtain testimony before a suit is filed BUT the rule also states "if the court is satisfied that the perpetuation of the testimony may prevent a failure or delay of justice." Thus the burden for Mr. Irby to meet, and the Court agreed with this argument, is whether obtaining the testimony may prevent a failure or delay of justice. Both Ms. Currie and Mr. Bounds argued there was no evidence they would not be available at a later date for testimony or there testimony would be "lost prior to petitioners filing a yet to accrue malicious prosecution action." Ms. Currie further accused the estate of seeking "pre-suit discovery." Mr. Bounds made similar arguments in his motion to dismiss. Ms. Currie then posited the petition was a "disguised attempt to gather evidence for use in Mr. Irby's criminal proceeding."

The judge agreed with Ms. Currie and dismissed the suit. The dismissal does not bar Mr. Irby or his estate from filing a complaint for malicious prosecution at a later date.

Conservators for Stuart M. Irby, Sr. filed a Notice of Verified Petition for Rule 27 depositions to file testimony, Friday in Madison County Circuit Court. The petition states Mr. Irby will file a suit for malicious prosecution against Lee Bounds and Madison Police Officer Vickie Currie, after the cyberstalking case against him is "terminated". The petition states the indictment against him is still pending.

The petition states Mr. Bounds is the first husband of Karen Irby. It claims Mr. Irby took "Mr. Bounds and his entire family to lunch one Sunday to celebrate the birthday" of one of his daughters (Karen and Lee's child). "Mr. Irby took several photographs of the family. Later, Mr. Irby sent Mr. Bounds photographs of Mr. Bounds' seventeen year old daughter, which he had photo-shopped by putting pictures" her face "onto the body of an adult female wearing a swimsuit."

The petition refers to the email as a "sophomoric prank" and states it was "emailed to Mr. Bounds, not to his daughter". The petition then states Mr. Bounds "emailed Mr. Irby asking if he could use Mr. Irby's condominium in Destin, Florida during his daughter's Spring Break."

Here is where it gets real interesting and I predict a suit will be filed against the Madison Police Department at some point. The petition states the mother of the daughter is a Madison Police investigator. Uh-oh. Everyone get that? Question that must be asked is why Madison did not turn the case over to MCSO or MBI. Expect Mr. Irby's lawyers to hit this point when they file suit. It is also stated Ms. Currie is also a Madison County Investigator and has a "close professional and personal relationship" with Mr. Bounds' ex-wife.

It is further argued Madison has no jurisdiction, as the alleged violation never took place in Madison. The petition alleges Mr. Bounds claims he was eating lunch at Wendy's in Madison when he opened the email. However, the suit claims Mr. Bounds ate lunch that day in Jackson and thus "provided false information under oath".

Hmmm....... remember my post last week? I seem to remember writing this:

"That was the news portion, now for the informed commentary part of this post. Lee Bounds is the ex-husband of Karen Irby. These two men know each other- well. In fact, Mr. Bounds sued Mr. Irby for alienation of affection in 2004. The case settled in 2005. There is a history of animosity between these two men. Several sources have informed JJ what took place was the Irby family went to the King Edward hotel for Sunday brunch. Mr. Bounds was invited to bring his family, which he did. Mr. Irby took pictures and Mr. Bounds daughter was one of those photographed. Apparently Mr. Irby learned how to photoshop a few months ago and thinks its pretty funny to photoshop his friends' faces on other bodies like the Hulk, swimsuit models, and the like. He took the daughter's face (who is seventeen) and photoshopped it on some swimsuit models and emailed the pictures to Mr. Bounds supposedly as a joke. Unfortunately for Mr. Irby, the girl's mother is a Madison (city) police officer.

However, several questions must be asked about this prosecution. Why was the Madison Police investigating this incident as it involved one of their own police officers? Standard procedure would have been for the Madison PD to hand the case off to another law enforcement agency such as the Madison County Sheriff's Office. JJ obtained a copy of the police report several months ago but did not publish it because there are serious doubts about is veracity. The police report repeatedly claims Mr. Irby cyberstalked the minor. JJ had already done some digging on the case and learned the facts posted above. The report was not posted as I had a serious question as to whether it was slanderous as cyberstalking a minor is considered much worse than sending a tasteless or crude email to a grown man and I did not want to publish a police report containing false statements. The indictment was more accurate than the original complaint, police report, and media coverage were as it stated Mr. Irby contacted Mr. Bounds, not his daughter. Big difference. Big, huge difference."

Most of the media coverage at the time stated Mr. Irby cyberstalked a minor, not Mr. Bounds. It remains to be seen whether the local media will correct their coverage. Earlier post including screen shots of media coverage.

A Madison County Grand Jury indicted Stuart M. Irby, Sr. on July 7, 2011 for cyberstalking Lee Bounds.