The Rack n' Roll Billiards Case Takes Another Turn

Radley Balko | February 19, 2007

If you've been following the massive corruption case in Manassas Park, Virginia that I and local political blogger Black Velvet Bruce Li have been reporting the last few months, the case has taken another fun turn.

The city of Manassas Park recently sent the proprietor of the BVBL blog a cease and desist order , calling his posts on the case "false and defamatory." Given that everything he's written thus far has been backed by testimony, videotape, interviews, and court records, the order has all the appearances of a bluff.

The behavior of city officials in this case is really infuriating, though not terribly surprising. After spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in a relentless effort to shut down David Ruttenberg's business, they're now spending yet more taxpayer dollars to threaten a blogger for daring to tell anyone about it.

My archive of the Rack n' Roll scandal here . BVBL's archive here .