Failed GOP State Senate candidate in court against "date rapist" former advisor
Failed GOP State Senate candidate in court against "date rapist" former advisor
Melissa Ackison and Joseph Gergley deserve each other.
There was a time, as short as it was, when I regularly DMed with then-Republican State Senate candidate Melissa Ackison, a woman who makes Congressman Jim Jordan look like a rational actor.
Somehow she believed that I, a deranged Communist blogger, had a direct line into the inner machinations of the Ohio Republican Party. That I routinely wined and dined with the uncharismatic sex pests that control our backwater state.
You’ll be shocked to learn that she lost her primary to a literal used car salesman in Bill Reineke.
I hadn’t thought about Ackison since that defeat. A member of President Xi Jinping’s Patriots Caucus shattered that nirvana by sending me a Licking County lawsuit involving Ackison and a former campaign consultant, Joseph Gergley, who are suing each other for defamation. (Case numbers: “2021 CA 00087” & “2021 CA 00089”)
Before you think of Gergley as some protagonist in that story, allow me to disabuse you of that notion. Gergley is a twice-failed Gahanna City Council candidate. At 26, he ran for mayor and lost partly due to the local paper of record publishing some of his old tweets.
From Jesse Bethea of columbusunderground.com in 2015:
On Thursday, the Columbus Dispatch published some of Gergley’s old tweets, including such insights as, “Why are Sesame Street characters all of a sudden speaking ebonics? Did I miss something?”, “The hungover girls on college campuses who go to planned parenthood are really just getting their breasts examined. Thank God for Komen!” and “If I saw Kurt from Glee in real life I would bully and tell him ‘It gets worse…’ ”
Standard right-wing loser talk. Easy to see how he duped himself into thinking he should be elected mayor.
The Ohio GOP, however, used its time-tested tactic of spending rich people’s money on a flyer panting Gergley as a creep who sexually assaulted women.
Here’s the flyer, which, again, is from 2015:
Republican on Republican is one of my favorite forms of violence—right next to a tenant on a landlord.
Gergley is now an insurance agent that does political consulting on the side. His relationship with Ackison started swimmingly enough. She recommended his services to a friend, saying she only trusted him to “run everything” for her.
That relationship soured to the current defamation suit, with the court ruling that Gergley did not meet the standard of a public figure, which is bad news for Ackison as the case gets kicked back to trial.
That’s another dispatch for another day. The 29-page document is miraculous to read in that it offers insight into the pettiness of two Republican hobgoblins when drawn into conflict with each other.
To the document:
When asked if she told people Gergley “gave drugs and alcohol to little kids,” Ackison responded, “That he gave drugs and alcohol to little kids, minors. I’m a mom of four boys. Anybody underage is a minor to me, kid, little kid.”
Gergley’s story is that, while tailgating in college, a group of women joined the party, and 15 minutes later, the police were handing out tickets, including one to a 20-year-old woman, to who Ackison insisted on referring as a minor.
Q: You told people that [Gergley] gave woman [sic] date rape drugs and bragged about it, correct?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay. You have no actual knowledge as to whether or not that’s true.
A: I actually do. [Gergley], himself, thought it was hilarious. He told us about something called Twittergate and said that the Ohio Republican Party, that he was covered in state-wide media, that he was covered in the papers.
“My source is the guy suing me for my actions, Your Honor.” He was laughing, actually. He thought it was funny.”
Ackison subsequently refuted calling Gergley “a date rapist” but admitted to saying he passed out drugs to women explaining she took the information from the Republican Party that he passed out known date rape drugs to women, yes.
“I didn’t call him a date rapist, your honor. I said he drugged women to rape them. It’s a totally different thing.”
Ackison confirmed she stated Gergley had a well-documented history of abusing women. When asked to name a single woman Gergley had a well-documented history of abusing, Ackison mentioned a woman named “Twinkle,” who was running for office in Alabama. Ackison explained that Gergley harassed the woman through disguised social media accounts.
You know depositions are getting to the good stuff whenever a woman from Alabama named Twinkle appears in the receipts.
Ackison asserted she “never told anybody publicly that Mr. Gergley gave marijuana to a small boy” but admitted she did say he was convicted of giving drugs and alcohol to children.
When asked if she authored the following post about Gergley: “He’s a racist stalker. A very deep history of racism and predatory behavior with women. Everyone knows that it’s him, and his IP address has already been traced and tracked. His cohorts have already sold him out,” Ackison replied, “Yes. He is a racist stalker.” In a response to a post authored by her husband: “Well documented history of stalking woman [sic] and deviant behaviors. Lonely lives with parents, stalks my wife, unkept,” Ackison admitted she commented, “Predator.”
Ackison’s brain is as smooth as a pebble that’s been at the bottom of a river for the last 20,000 years because she’s claiming her enemy’s IP has been “traced and tracked” (redundant) in 2022.
Q: Fair to say you hate Mr. Gergley?
A: I don’t hate anyone. It’s against my Christianity. I’m not going to go to Mr — go to hell for Joe Gergley.
Q: Okay. As recently as Mr. Gergley’s deposition, did you stand up and scream at him that he’s a fat ass mother fucker?
A: No. That was in deposition after seven hours and him laughing across the table and yeah, I lost it.
Q: I asked if you did it.
A: I did.
Q: Yes.
A: Not proud of it but certainly did.
Q: You called him a sick fuck.
A: I do believe he is.
Claiming not to want to go to Hell for hating a man seconds before admitting him to calling him a sick, fat fuck in a deposition is an excellent microcosm of the American Evangelical movement. They are Christians so far that they’re Godly, while their enemies are doughy date rapists.
Gergley also addressed Ackison’s allegation that he attended a high school prime as an adult. Gergley stated he attended three proms, two his junior year of high school and one his senior year of high school. Years later, Gergley was visiting a girl he had taken to one of the proms. When Gergley was leaving, her younger brother was outside, smoking marijuana, and asked Gergley for a ride to his girlfriend’s house. As soon as the two entered Gergley’s vehicle, a police officer pulled up next to them. The officer advised Gergley that he had pulled him over due to some thefts in the area.
Gurgley won the dispute at hand (that he wasn’t a public figure), but god damn, he sure came out looking like a creep. Anytime you have to explain how many proms you attended before launching into some story that explains how you got caught with a 20-year-old girl with dope in your car is suspect behavior. It’s no surprise that this loser would grow up to slut-shame women for seeking birth control advice at Planned Parenthood.
Ackison is unwell, but it’s funny that Gurgley tried to get her elected into Senate and now has to deal with all the kooky behavior he initially looked the other way on. This is as close as we will get to witnessing the actual Hell that these two jokers deserve.
THOSE WMDs. How we’re draining power from our language… The hidden signs that can reveal a fake photo… How to keep your cast iron pan spotless, according to the experts… The psychological impact of consuming true crime… The GIF is on its deathbed.