Anthony Novak's case highlighted in new documentary

A new documentary tells the true story of an American comedian arrested at gunpoint and threatened with jail for mocking his local police department.

In 2016, Anthony Novak, an amateur online comic from Ohio, created a parody Facebook page about the force.

The page was satire, but the police took it seriously. They raided his home with guns drawn, threw him in county jail, and charged him with a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

In the years that followed, he had to fight in court to defend his First Amendment right to criticise the government. With support from The Onion, his case went all the way to the US Supreme Court.

The posts on Novak’s page  included the announcement of an ‘official stay inside and catch up with family day [to] reduce future crimes’ during which anyone caught outside would be arrested.

He was prosecuted under an Ohio law that criminalises using a computer to ‘disrupt… police operations’.  Novak had to spend four days in jail before making bail. He was prosecuted, but after a full criminal trial, a jury found him not guilty.

But when the comedian filed a civil-rights lawsuit over his arrest, the appeals court refused to hold the police officers accountable for their actions under a doctrine called ‘qualified immunity’.

A film about his case, Crime & Parody, gets its premiere at the Big Sky documentary festival in Montana tomorrow, just as debates around free speech and political expression flare up in the States.

The film-makers say: ‘Anthony’s case helps raise two questions that continue to grow more urgent: how do you hold the government accountable when they violate your rights, and what responsibility does law enforcement have to its citizens?’

The film combines the story with that of Omar Arrington-Bey who was killed by law enforcement, and how the officers couldn’t be held accountable because of qualified immunity.

Here's a trailer: 

Published: 20 Feb 2026