Eight months ago, Denton Loudermill Jr., and his lawyers took to the media and the courts to try and restore his name after internet posters circulated his picture and falsely labeled him a shooter at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade.
Loudermill had been photographed sitting and in handcuffs. Police had stopped him for moving too slowly away from the scene of a shooting that killed one person and injured at least 20 others. Police released him after a time and did not charge him, but that didn’t apparently matter to the person who posted his picture on Twitter (now known as X).
The erroneous post was passed along by three Missouri senators and a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee. Loudermill sued them.
Last Thursday, Oct. 31, he was back talking to the media again — this time to correct the notion that the dismissal of those suits on a legal technicality meant he had lost or was guilty when in fact the judges simply decided the federal court in Kansas was the wrong one to hear the case.
‘This is not over’
Loudermill is in the process of refiling the four lawsuits. The three federal suits against Missouri Sens. Rick Brattin, Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer were to be refiled in the Western District of Missouri Central Division. The suit against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, may eventually be refiled in federal court in Washington D.C., said LaRonna Lassiter Saunders, attorney and justice advocate working with Loudermill.
“This is not over. We’re going to see it through to the end,” she said.
There are plenty of things Loudermill said he’d rather be doing on a Halloween afternoon than reliving that February and its aftermath. “I’d rather be seeing my kids and enjoying my life,” he said. “I’d rather be laying down watching TV, for real.”
But his life has been upended by the unwanted attention that followed the tweet, and it didn’t help when people began hearing his suits were “dismissed” without knowing the legal context, he said.
At the car wash, where he works, for instance, people sometimes recognize him, he said. “When they come through I can see them looking at me on their phones. That worries me sometimes. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”
All that attention is due to the elected officials fanning the flames, Lassiter Saunders said. Those officials should admit to their mistake and correct it, she added.
“People go on with their lives,” she said. “The senators have gone on, everybody’s gone on, and Mr. Loudermill still has to deal with the wreckage and the damage from their actions.”
Loudermill added, “These guys in the position that they’re in should know the laws and not to break them. They should know they did wrong. They should stand up and do what’s right.”
The state senators and Burchett reshared a photo and caption that originated with someone else. So far, that person has not been identified or sued, though Lassiter Saunders didn’t rule that out eventually.
She said she hopes the case will stand as a lesson for people to take responsibility for what they say online. “As elected officials you should do your due diligence. Be responsible, especially on a platform like Twitter or X. Don’t just reshare the first thing you see. Do some research and get the facts.”
With the Chiefs pushing toward another Super Bowl win this season, Loudermill, an avid fan, said the experience has given him pause about going to the next parade. But he’ll still go if they win. “I’m going to go and represent my Kansas City Chiefs,” he said. “But I’ve got a lot of issues dealing with this problem because a lot of people that never bothered me are bothering me now — a lot of people I don’t even know.”
This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.
