LINDEN, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Middle Tennessee sheriff is defending the arrest of a man who posted an online meme quoting President Donald Trump.
Larry Bushart, 61, of Lexington, Tenn., faces felony charges for threatening a mass shooting at Perry County High School – even though Sheriff Nick Weems admits the meme does not actually contain any threatening words that led investigators to think it was a real threat.
The case, Weems said, hinges on how some people in Perry County may have interpreted the meme that noted Trump's response to a school shooting in Perry, Iowa. Bushart has sat in jail for more than a month, unable to make the $2 million bond set by a local judge.
“This has everything to do with a guy coming onto a Perry County page posting this picture leading people in our community to believe that there was a hypothetical Perry County High School shooting that caused fear in our community – and we done something about it,” Sheriff Weems said in an exclusive interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Now, free-speech advocates are sounding the alarm about what they consider to be law enforcement overreach.
As word has spread about Bushart’s arrest, Weems said, “There’s been some very, very bad phone calls that my employees has had to endure.”
Bodycam video shows that local police took Bushart into custody at his home in Lexington, Tennessee, on September 21, based on a warrant issued out of Perry County. The one-time cop is one of those rare liberals in rural Middle Tennessee and a keyboard warrior known for posting sometimes-provocative progressive memes.
The arresting officer informed Bushart that the warrant accused him of “threatening mass violence at a school.”
“At a school?” Bushart asked. “I play on Facebook. I threatened no one.”
The meme that landed Bushart in jail – part of a discussion about Charlie Kirk's murder – included the quote from President Donald Trump that “we have to get over it” and noted that Trump made that remark “on the Perry High School mass shooting one day after.”
Two people were killed and six injured during the shooting in Perry, Iowa, back in January.
The meme includes the caption, "This seems relevant today."
Sheriff Weems said some in his community took the reference in the Trump meme to “Perry High School” to be a suggestion that he planned to shoot up Perry County High School, which had recently had to deal with a threat from a student.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted, "It doesn't say Perry County High School."
"It says ‘Perry High School mass shooting one day after,’ ok? That led people to believe in our county that he's talking about Perry County High School – because it doesn't say ‘Iowa’ either."
We pressed the sheriff, “But you also knew this was an existing meme that was already out there on the Internet."
“Correct,” Weems agreed.
Again, we noted, "So it's clear that he's not talking about Perry County High School."
"We knew,” the sheriff said. “The public did not know."
Chris Eargle, from South Carolina, heard about Bushart's arrest and started a "Free Larry Bushart" page on Facebook. He noted that no one in the original Facebook group responded to the meme with any accusation that it was a threat.
“No one even mentioned it,” Eargle added. “A reasonable person could not possibly interpret that as a threat. So, I'm not sure what he's reacting to. I think it might be his own feelings."
NewsChannel 5 asked Sheriff Weems why he did not just inform any concerned members of the public that the post was clearly not about Perry County High School.
"Because here's the thing: whenever you're dealing with something like this and you've got multiple people that is now scared to send their kids to school, we tried to take a different approach and go and speak to this guy and say, ‘Hey, look, this is what you're doing.’"
The police bodycam video shows that Bushart’s wife told officer that her husband “thinks that it's just freedom of speech.”
And the Lexington man made the same point when he was booked.
"I don't think I committed a crime,” Bushart told an officer. "I may have been an asshole."
The cop responded, "That's not illegal."
In his interview with NewsChannel 5, Sheriff Weems insisted all of this could have been avoided if Bushart had just deleted the meme that some people in Perry County found objectionable.
“Whenever we sent Lexington Police Department out to speak to him and he refused to do that, I mean, what kind of person does that?" Weems asked. "What kind of person just says he don't care?"
NewsChannel 5 Investigates answered, "Maybe a person who doesn't think he's done anything wrong."
A Tennessee state law passed in 2024, Weems insisted, “says otherwise."
As for the sheriff’s statement that Bushart would not be in jail if he had just deleted the post, Chris Eargle said it shows the issue was never really about a threat against Perry County High School.
"It pretty much tells me he doesn't consider it a threat,” Eargle said. “If you think it was a threat, why would removing it make any difference?"
NewsChannel 5 had one more question for Sheriff Weems.
"In your heart, do you think Larry Bushart was threatening to shoot up Perry County High School?"
"In my heart,” he responded, “I think Larry Bushart knew what he was doing once we made contact with him or when law enforcement made contact with him, and I believe that he knew what he was doing and, in my heart, he violated the law set forth by our legislators."
Weems said the arrest was also approved by District Attorney Hans Schwendimann's office, and they signed off on the arrest, as did a judicial commissioner.
Schwendimann did not return NewsChannel 5’s call seeking comment.
Bushart's attorney has filed a motion to reduce his bond, but that motion is not scheduled to be heard until December 4.