Federal judge Arthur Tarnow knocked down former assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell over his decision to try and find a shortcut way of wrapping up a lawsuit against him. Tarnow stated “You’re basically at the beginning of the lawsuit trying to get to the end. You’re wasting a lot of energy.”

Shirvell is representing himself in federal court, and has been trying to get Tarnow to throw out the majority of a lawsuit filed against him by Christopher Armstrong. The suit stems from the fact that Shirvell stalked Armstrong, the former student body president of the University of Michigan, and caused him emotional harm through that stalking as well as attacking him for being gay. Shirvell claimed that Armstrong was getting minors drunk and recruiting them into the ‘homosexual lifestyle’.

Shirvell has countersued claiming that he is the victim and that Armstrong has caused his recent professional troubles, including being fired from the state’s Attorney General’s Office last November after investigators found out that he had been using his state computer to update his blog and then lying about it.

According to Freep.com:

Shirvell argued today he didn’t do anything trying to inflict intentional emotional harm on Armstrong. He said none of his criticisms of Armstrong were over the line of acceptable criticism.

That didn’t hold water with Tarnow, who said a jury would have to decide whether the allegations were true. Tarnow said for the purposes of today’s hearing he had to treat the allegations as true – and there was more than enough to move it forward to a jury.

“They are so many allegations that even if one of these are (true) you’ll be going to trial.”

Shirvell lashed out in court, though, after Tarnow repeatedly denied motions to knock out parts of the suit. He stated that “I’m so handicapped in this case you might as well run me over with the train.” Tarnow just retored, apparently, that Shirvell had proven that old adage of the man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. Shirvell has said, though, that he intends to keep on filing those motions in order to try and get the suit tossed before it goes to the jury. Shirvell has even been trying to get a judge to compel “Armstrong to answer questions about his sex life and religious beliefs.”