EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The attorney for an Evansville man accused of making threats on Twitter, prompting the cancelation of a college baseball game, is arguing the remarks are free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Defense attorney John Brinson is asking a judge to dismiss two felony intimidation charges filed against 24-year-old Naquan Powell last month. The charges are Class D felonies punishable by six months to three years in prison.

The comments posted on Twitter on April 16, a day after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, led the University of Evansville to cancel a baseball game scheduled for that evening.

According to the Evansville Police Department the tweet said: We cant get any type of mental health help in this damn town. I bet theyd wanna help us if we shoot up a @UEAthletics game tho.

Moments earlier, a tweet from the same user account said: Cant get evaluated for mental health in evansville Indiana until we shoot up @EvansvillePD apparently.

In a court document supporting the motion to dismiss, Brinson argued that the Twitter posts dont meet the definition of a threat in Indiana law. Instead of being a threat, he argued, the statements were exaggerated speech.

“The expressions are not a direct threat, or an implied threat, or a conditional threat. The expressions are not in the form of I intended to harm someone, and cannot even be construed to convey that meaning,” Brinson wrote. “They are not in the in the conditional form of, If I dont get what I want, I will harm someone. They express only that there is such a lack of mental health care available that a person would have to do something crazy, such as shoot up an athletic or a police station before the system will take notice and provide mental health care.”

The tweets were posted by the Twitter account @PopeQuanPaul. Evansville Police Department Sgt. Jason Cullum said investigators were able to trace the posts back to Powell.

In the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest, a police detective wrote that Powell admitted making the statements and said he did so while trying to find a way for his girlfriend to receive mental health treatment.

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See the rest here:
Attorney: Twitter 'threats' free speech