Former Michigan assistant attorney
general Andrew Shirvell had been warned not to use government
resources to launch anti-gay attacks two months before he targeted
gay student Chris Armstrong, AnnArbor.com
first reported.
According to a 586-page report compiled
by the attorney general's office, Shirvell previously attacked former
Representative Leon Drolet in an email. Drolet, a Republican, now
chairs the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, a group devoted to lowering
taxes in the state.
“The grassroots will NEVER let you
and your [gay slur] … hijack our pro-life, pro-family party in
pursuit of your PERVETED radical homosexual agenda,” Shirvell wrote
to Drolet and others.
Shirvell was warned by supervisors not
to use state resources that way again and not to “engage in that
conduct again” after the agency received a complaint about the
email.
The University of Michigan alum,
however, dismissed the warning and went on to torment Armstrong, the
openly gay president of the Michigan Student Assembly at the
University of Michigan.
The civil servant attacked Armstrong on
the Internet, at his home and at university events. At
his now private blog Chris
Armstrong Watch, the official accused the student of preying
on impressionable freshman, of being “Satan's representative on the
student assembly,” and labeled Armstrong a Nazi, a racist, a liar
and an elitist.
The report brings to light new details
about an alleged “police raid” on an Armstrong party.
Shirvell created a dramatic scene when
he called police after he witnessed someone urinating outside the
house. When the officers arrived, he documented the “raid.”
“This 'raid' was played up in AAG
Shirvell's blog the following day as a 'stunning turn of events' with
'exclusive pictures and video' of police 'descending' on Mr.
Armstrong's house,” the report said.
Shivell was fired by then-Attorney
General Mike Cox, a Republican, who at first defended his employee's
actions as free speech. Shirvell “repeatedly violated office
policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior and inappropriately
used state resources,” Cox said in a statement.