Andrew Shirvell Fired

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Update: Shirvell fired after targeting openly gay student leader

Posted: November 8th, 2010 -- 04:00 PM ET

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CNN Wire Staff


Editor's note: Tonight on AC360°, Deborah Gordon, attorney for college student Chris Armstrong, speaks with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Tune in beginning at 10 pm ET.

(CNN) -- An assistant attorney general in Michigan has been fired, weeks after coming under fire for targeting an openly gay University of Michigan student online and in person, Attorney General Mike Cox said Monday.

Andrew Shirvell "repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior and inappropriately used state resources," Cox said.

Shirvell's lawyer, Philip J. Thomas, acknowledged his client's termination but did not add anything further. Deborah Bond, the attorney for university student body president, Chris Armstrong, said she and her client "had no comment."

In late September, Cox defended Shirvell's authoring of a blog titled "Chris Armstrong Watch" that railed against the "radical homosexual agenda" of Armstrong.

"Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think and engage in political and social speech," Cox told Anderson Cooper on CNN's "AC 360." "He's clearly a bully ... but is that protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution? Yes."

Shirvell's dismissal stemmed from actions "unbecoming a state employee" that went beyond the blog, Cox said in Monday's announcement.

Cox said he wasn't firing Shirvell for "exercising ... First Amendment rights, (however) unpopular (the) positions might be," but for persistent and personal harassment.

According to Cox, Shirvell showed up at Armstrong's home three times -- including once at 1:30 a.m. Cox said this showed that Shirvell was intent on harassing Armstrong, not just exercising his right to free speech.

While Shirvell may not be charged criminally with stalking, Cox said that he behaved in a way that "was harassing, uninvited and showed a pattern that was, in the everyday sense, stalking." He cited numerous examples, including:

-- Calling the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where Armstrong worked, "in an attempt to slander Armstrong" and get him fired.

-- Trying to "out" Armstrong's friends -- some of whom were not gay -- as homosexual.

-- Harassing Armstrong's friends while out socializing in Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan.

Cox had originally defended Shirvell in part because he believed his blog was being done when he wasn't at work. But he said Monday that Shirvell had, in fact, posted online "attacks" on Armstrong and called Pelosi's office while he was on the job as an assistant attorney general.

After his blog garnered national media attention, Shirvell placed it behind a privacy firewall, making it available only to invited readers.

In early October, he took a voluntary leave of absence from his job. Around that time, Shirvell, a graduate of the University of Michigan, was barred from the Ann Arbor campus.

Shirvell defended his postings on "AC 360" on September 28, acknowledging that he protested outside Armstrong's house and called him "Satan's representative on the student assembly."

"I'm a Christian citizen exercising my First Amendment rights," Shirvell told Cooper. "I have no problem with the fact that Chris is a homosexual. I have a problem with the fact that he's advancing a radical homosexual agenda."

Armstrong, who said he has never spoken with Shirvell, told CNN days later that his principal issues as the school's student body president was longer cafeteria hours, gender-neutral housing and lower tuition costs.

"The things that are said about me are not my issues," Armstrong said.

CNN's Anna Gonzalez contributed to this report.