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Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) speaks during a House Freedom Caucus press conference on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) at the U.S. Capitol Feb. 13, 2024. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)
The man who U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., proclaimed online was both an “illegal alien” and a suspect at the deadly shooting that marred the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade last month, has sued, claiming the bogus statements invaded his right to privacy and caused him to receive death threats and experience emotional distress.
The civil complaint was filed by Denton Eugene Loudermill Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas on Monday. Over a succinct eight pages, Loudermill alleged Burchett’s statements caused “false and defamatory representations” to be made about him on social media last month.
Images of the social media posts in question from Burchett are included in the federal complaint. They shows Burchett’s Feb. 15 post featuring a photograph of Loudermill surrounded by police. Burchett wrote above it: “One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.”
It was reposted over 21,000 times and garnered over 7.2 million views, Loudermill’s attorneys wrote.
On Feb. 18, Burchett would retweet the same post but with a new message.
“It has come to my attention that in one of my previous posts, one of the shooters was identified as an illegal alien. This was based on multiple, incorrect news reports stating that. I have removed the post,” Burchett wrote.
That message still, however, misidentified Loudermill as one of the shooters, his attorneys say.
“Defendant knew or should have known that his inflammatory post on social media would be seen and read nationwide, including in Kansas where the subject of his post was a resident, especially considering the event was surrounding an NFL team that has ‘Kansas’ in its name,” his attorneys allege.
![Civil complaint records show social media posts cited by Denton Loudermill in his complaint alleging Rep. Tim Burchett falsely accused him of being an "illegal Alien" [sic] and a "shooter" at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.](https://am21.mediaite.com/lc/cnt/uploads/2024/03/loudermil-exhibits.jpg)
Civil complaint records show social media posts cited by Denton Loudermill in his complaint alleging Rep. Tim Burchett falsely accused him of being an “illegal Alien” and a “shooter” at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.
Thousands of cellphones, computers and other devices pinged with Burchett’s offensive and incorrect messages.
“At no time was Plaintiff an ‘alien,’ an ‘illegal alien,’ nor a ‘shooter’ and the assertions to the contrary were false and circulated widely among Defendant’s followers and Defendant’s false assertions about plaintiff were reposted and circulated to more than one million people around the world who had interactions or engagements with Defendant’s false assertions,” the civil complaint states.
Loudermill is seeking a jury trial and damages of no less than $75,000 for his injuries which he alleges include “mental distress, sleeplessness, anxiety, and agitation … as well as emotional suffering, humiliation, embarrassment, insult and inconvenience.”
Burchett’s “recklessness” prompting death threats upended his life as an otherwise “quiet person who strived to do well in his employment at a car wash and to be a positive and contributing member of his African-American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”
In an email to Law&Crime on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Burchett declined to comment on any active litigation.
