Andrew Shirvell FIRED!

(Detroit Free Press) - Andrew Shirvell, the assistant attorney general under fire for his attacks on a University of Michigan student, has been fired.

A hearing that was supposed to be held Tuesday was moved up to this afternoon. Philip Thomas, Shirvell's attorney, said he showed up for the meeting and was read one sentence.

"They said essentially that as a result of Andrew's conduct, it's become impossible for him to carry out his duties as an attorney general."

Shirvell had been criticized for his blog in which he calls Chris Armstrong, the president of the Michigan Student Assembly, a radical homosexual, a Nazi and Satan's representative on the assembly. Thomas had said his client is expressing his free-speech rights.

"To be clear, I refuse to fire anyone for exercising their First Amendment rights, regardless of how popular or unpopular their positions might be. However, Shirvell repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior, and inappropriately used state resources, our investigation showed."

Among the examples cited by Cox in the statement:

*Showed up at the home of a private citizen three times, including once at 1:30 a.m. That incident is especially telling because it clearly was about harassing Mr. Armstrong, not engaging in free speech.

*Further engaged in behavior that, while not perhaps sufficient to charge criminal stalking, was harassing, uninvited and showed a pattern that was in the everyday sense, stalking.

*Harassing Armstrong's friends as they were socializing in Ann Arbor;

*Numerous calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, Armstrong's employer, in an attempt to slander Armstrong - and ultimately attempting to cause Pelosi to fire Armstrong;

*Attempting to "out" Armstrong's friends as homosexual - several of whom were not gay.

Cox said Shirvell engaged in his campaign against Shirvell on company time and posted attacks on Armstrong on the Internet while at work.

"Finally, Shirvell lied to investigating assistant attorneys general on several occasions during his disciplinary hearing."