After more than a month behind bars, a retired Tennessee police officer who found himself locked up for sharing a Trump quote on Facebook is finally free — and the case against him has been dropped.
Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told NewsChannel 5 that he officially dropped the charges against Larry Bushart on Wednesday, a sudden reversal that came just days after the story exploded across social media.
Bushart’s ordeal started back in September, when Perry County deputies arrested him over a meme quoting President Donald Trump. The quote — “We have to get over it” — was Trump’s reaction to a 2024 mass shooting at Perry High School in Iowa.
But Sheriff Weems said that some locals in Perry County, Tennessee, misinterpreted the post as a threat to attack Perry High School there.
In an interview with NewsChannel 5, Weems admitted he knew all along that Bushart had not actually threatened anyone. Still, Bushart ended up behind bars, accused of making a terrorist threat, and held on an eye-popping $2 million bond.
Weems told reporters that officers from Lexington were dispatched to Bushart’s home to warn him that his post was being perceived as a threat — and that Bushart refused to take it down.
But that version of events didn’t hold up. NewsChannel 5 obtained the Lexington officer’s bodycam video, and it told a very different story.
“So, I’m just going to be completely honest with you,” the officer said in the footage. “I have really no idea what they are talking about. He had just called me and said there was some concerning posts that were made.”
Weems later admitted he hadn’t even seen that video before signing off on Bushart’s arrest. Meanwhile, Bushart paid a steep price for the sheriff’s mistake. Stuck in jail without a way to post the $2 million bond, he lost his job doing medical transport.
What started as a Facebook post quoting Trump spiraled into a month-long jail stay, a viral controversy, and now a public reckoning for the sheriff who ordered the arrest.
Watch WKRN News 2’s full report below:
