Dad spent 2.5 years in prison for blogging about his divorce

In 2008, Indiana father Dan Brewington took to his blog to chronicle the difficulties surrounding his divorce proceedings. Frustrated by the lack of answers he received from the closed case file, he posted documents, along with his musings, online, and ended up serving time in prison as a result.

'The custody evaluator wasn't being consistent in his statements,' he told HuffPost Live host Nancy Redd. 'I started questioning it, raising it with the court. Nobody could provide me with a legitimate answer. So what I wound up doing was making a website and a blog. And I put the information on the internet.'


But it was Brewington's criticism of the judge in his case that ended up landing him in prison.

'The prosecutor said, 'you're not allowed to lie.' And so the prosecutor said I called the judge a child abuser. That was one of their biggest complaints. They just started reading statement after statement after statement from the blog saying that the judge was unethical, that he's an evil man, that he's a child abuser for taking children away from their parents. Things of that nature. Just a lot of rhetorical statements.'

When Brewington decided to fight the court for his First Amendment rights instead of accepting a plea bargain, he was sentenced to five years in prison, half of which he served. Since being released from Putnamville Correctional Facility, Brewington has yet to see his two daughters.

'I don't have any contact with them. No phone contact,' he said.

To learn more, watch his full segment here.