A jury has declared a Juneau artist not guilty of terroristic threatening. Mitchell Watley was accused of threatening the public in 2023, when he distributed printed notes featuring memes referencing school shootings around town.
Mitchell Watley was accused of four felony counts of terroristic threatening. His attorney argued that he was not intending to cause fear when he distributed the notes.
In March 2023, notes depicting an automatic rifle and the words “Feeling Cute Might Shoot Some Children” on a transgender pride flag were left in grocery stores and the State Office Building downtown.
Police traced video surveillance footage to a car registered to Watley. He was arrested a few days later.
In the course of the trial, jurors heard from police, school administrators and Watley himself.
Former Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss testified that schools took the notes seriously.
“In my world, as a K-12 educator in the world we live in, a sick joke is a threat,” she said during trial proceedings.
Juneau Police Department officers also testified that they were concerned about public safety when the notes were found, and that the department stationed extra officers near the schools that day.
Watley himself took the stand to say he didn’t intend for anyone to be alarmed by the notes he left around town.
His attorney Nicholas Polasky asked him if he thought people would perceive it as a threat.
“No,” Watley replied.
“Did the thought cross your mind?” Polasky then asked.
“Never,” Watley said.
Polasky argued that the incident did not meet the definition of a “true threat” — the crime Watley was charged with.
“Broadly speaking – a true threat is something that objectively appears to be a threat and was meant to be a threat,” Polasky told KTOO over email. “It is not required [that] a person must intend to act on the threat, but the person must mean for the message to be a threat.”
Watley’s attorney said it was intended as a meme to spread Watley’s beliefs at the time that transgender people were dangerous. Watley said he was thinking about a Tennessee shooting that happened earlier that year. The perpetrator was a transgender person.
According to the Violence Project, less than one percent of mass shootings in the United States have been committed by a transgender person.
“I kind of assumed it would be like when we see a meme on social media,” Watley testified. “They’d look at it and form an opinion and move on.”
Watley distributed the notes on Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event recognizing the obstacles transgender individuals face and their contributions to society.
He’s an illustrator, and when he was arrested in 2023, local shops pulled his book from their shelves, pointing to the growing anti-trans climate that his notes perpetuated.
Watley said that he doesn’t think about transgender people much these days.
The trial against Watley lasted four days. The jury returned its not guilty verdict on Wednesday.
