Ryan Flynn, 32, has been in jail for 151 days for a screenshot of a social media post.

From the criminal complaint, the post read:

“If you kidnap and violate my rights and bring me to ecmc or jail illegally to the day I get out I’m going to murder John Flynn’s wife for Framing me for crimes and mental health to cover up corruption just kidding Without a hearing the day I get out I’ll murder John Flynn’s wife”

The post contains the words “just kidding” in the middle of it, and it came from an account named “JohnFlynn@needmorehaters1” — named after the husband of the woman allegedly being threatened. A person making a genuine threat does not name their account after the target’s husband. That is what a frame job looks like.

Under Counterman v. Colorado (2023), prosecutors must show the speaker had subjective awareness that the target of their words would perceive it as a true threat. A post that says “just kidding” in the middle of it, from an anonymous account not registered to Ryan Flynn, with no forensic evidence connecting him to it, is thin evidence to hold a man 151 days without bail.

Cocaine?

But that is not really the genesis of this battle between Ryan Flynn and the husband of the woman he allegedly threatened.

It began in April 2025, when Flynn filed a formal report with the Buffalo Police, accusing his older cousin — former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn — of sexually molesting him when he was between 10 and 12 years old.

Ryan described two incidents at his father’s home in South Buffalo. The first: he woke to find John Flynn lying across his legs, touching him. The second: John Flynn exposed himself and asked Ryan to perform sexual acts. Ryan refused. John Flynn threatened to kill him or ruin his life if he ever told anyone.

Ryan told no one for two decades.

2869EEF9-99CF-466F-A241-14A7D5B4BBAA - Frank Report — John Flynn with close friend Renee Zeno

When Ryan did come forward, he did more than file a police report. He also called Tonawanda police to report that John Flynn was using cocaine and had been suicidal. Police showed up at John Flynn’s house at 5:20 in the morning. Flynn denied it. Ten days later, Ryan was charged with False Reporting of an Incident. That charge became the foundation for the original order of protection Judge Gruber issued — the same order Ryan would later be accused of violating.

Six months after filing the police report, Tonawanda police arrested Ryan on charges that he had posted an anonymous threat against John Flynn’s wife from a Twitter account called “JohnFlynn@needmorehaters1” — an account not registered to him.

The evidence in the criminal complaint is this single screenshot. No IP address. No device records. No metadata. No forensic analysis connecting Ryan to the account.

Judge J. Mark Gruber remanded him without bail.

The Gruber Connection

Judge Gruber did not come to this case as a neutral party. From 2010 to 2016, John Flynn served as Town Attorney for the Town of Tonawanda. Gruber served as Town Justice in that same municipality. For six years, they worked together in the same small-town government.

Gruber was the judge deciding whether he would remand Flynn’s accuser without bail.

This publication reported the conflict. Judge Gruber recused himself from the case.

On September 17, 2025, the Director of Erie County Forensic Mental Health Services notified Judge Gruber in writing that Ryan Flynn lacked the capacity to proceed to trial.

JudgeMarkGruber - Frank Report — Judge J Mark Gruber

Twenty-four hours later, Judge Gruber issued an order of protection barring Ryan from contact with John Flynn and his wife.

Five weeks after that, police arrested Ryan for allegedly violating that order.

The Director of Erie County Forensic Mental Health Services told Judge Gruber the defendant was incompetent. He issued the order anyway — the same order Ryan would later be charged with violating. Then he admitted, by his recusal, that he had a conflict from the start. Every order he signed in this case is now in question.

The original order of protection. The reissued order. The remand without bail. All of it flows from a judge who could not, by his own admission, continue.

The Competency Question

The incompetency finding was the lever prosecutors used to keep Ryan jailed without a hearing. Under CPL § 180.80, a defendant must be released after 144 hours if prosecutors fail to hold a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors never held the hearing. The court ruled the clock did not run while competency remained unresolved.

There is another problem prosecutors have not answered. If Ryan Flynn was legally incompetent in September 2025 — too mentally incapacitated to understand the proceedings against him — he was equally incapable of knowingly violating the order of protection Judge Gruber issued that same month. You cannot be too mentally unfit to stand trial and simultaneously mentally fit enough to form the criminal intent required to violate a court order. The prosecution used his incompetence to keep him jailed. They cannot use it to prove he acted knowingly.

Two independent psychiatrists evaluated Ryan Flynn in January 2026 and found him competent. Dr. Peter S. Martin concluded with reasonable medical certainty that Ryan is not an incapacitated person, understands his charges, and can work with an attorney. Dr. Evelyn M. Coggins, Chief Psychiatrist of Erie County Forensic Mental Health Services, reached the same conclusion.

The county mental health department that declared him incompetent in September reversed itself in January.

Erie County has held Ryan Flynn for 151 days without a grand jury indictment. Under CPL § 190.80, they should have released him after 45.

No Cameras

Erie County transferred Flynn to the Alden Correctional Facility, which has no cameras in the housing units. Flynn was assaulted once already in Erie County custody. Erie County charged no one.

The Standard John Flynn Set

When former DA John Flynn charged his political enemy Steve Pigeon with predatory sexual assault in 2021, he stood at the podium crowing at a press conference, “I believe the child. I stand with the child. I do not need corroborating evidence.”

He never interviewed Pigeon before charging him. He said he didn’t need to. He knew Pigeon would deny it.

That case collapsed from a potential life sentence to eight months on a single count. The evidence was always faulty based on a mentally ill relative of Pigeon’s, whose story was a fabrication.

When Ryan Flynn accused John Flynn of abusing him as a child, John Flynn obviously did not stand with the accuser. His former allies, the police in Tonawanda, arrested not John but the accuser, Ryan.

John Flynn’s former ally, Judge Gruber, jailed Ryan without bail over a screenshot that effectively silenced his allegations at a time when John Flynn is reportedly considering running for Erie County Executive.

Ryan Flynn goes before a new judge on March 24. The judge who jailed him has admitted, by his recusal, that he had a conflict from the start. The psychiatrists the county sent to declare him incompetent have now declared him competent. Erie County has held him for 151 days on a screenshot with no forensic evidence.

John Flynn stood at a podium and said of Steve Pigeon, “He should be in jail for the rest of his life.” He said of the rape of a child, “This is big boy stuff,” “This is rape, this isn’t child molestation, this is rape.”

He said he stood with the child. He believed the child. He did not need corroborating evidence.

Ryan Flynn was a child when his cousin John Flynn allegedly abused him. Ryan has named the location, described the acts, and identified his abuser — with far more specificity than the mentally ill accuser of Pigeon ever had.

He has lost his freedom for saying it out loud.

John Flynn set the standard that should apply here. This is big boy stuff. We stand with the child.

Let Ryan Flynn out of jail and let us hear his full story.