CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A judge on Thursday set a $1 million bond for a white livestreamer charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting and wounding a Black man, in a case that has stoked debate over the extents of free speech and the rights of content creators who profit from hate-filled interactions.Dalton Eatherly, who livestreams as “Chud the Builder,” is charged in the May 13 shooting of Joshua Fox outside of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, a Tennessee city of about 165,000 people not far from Kentucky.Judge H. Reid Poland III forbade attendees at the hearing from using electronic devices and interfering in any way with the proceedings, and he ordered several people from the courtroom, including conservative activist Jake Lang, who was led out in handcuffs.Eatherly’s attorney, Jacob Fendley, declined to comment on the charges when reached two days after the livestreamer’s arrest. But he asked people to stop harassing him and his staff, saying even though he’s defending Eatherly, he finds his online content objectionable.
The case has drawn interest, with Eatherly raising more than $100,000 for his legal defense in a single day on a fundraising site. It is reminiscent of an incident from a year ago in which a white Minnesota woman was captured on cellphone video admitting to calling a child a racist slur. She amassed over $800,000 on a crowdfunding site and also pointed to her First Amendment rights.
