Maybe, but the entire county is run by the good ol' boys network. Good luck getting the police to investigate or charge the mayor, and good luck in court.

Part of the chilling effect is the incentive against pursuing justice in cases like this. The single mother was already publicly targeted and made unsafe, chances are that the public targeting will get even worse if she pursued justice against her harassers.

These same people in power who led this campaign against her have sycophants in the local media who have no problem using their wide reach to smear dissenters like they do every election season, even for minor Board of Ed elections.