Christopher Sheehan, 51, has been arrested after sending a letter to the Department of Motor Vehicles demanding a driver’s license or he would seek “day of reckoning when I pull all of you lying pigs into an iron garden from which you will not escape.”
Sheehan insisted that his “beautiful face” should have a license.
There is an interesting legal question here: whether a threat to pull DMV employees into a mythical place is a threat. I am not sure what an iron garden may be, but the prosecutors will have to show that it involves physical harm to DMV employees. If someone says that he is going to have his pet unicorn pay the DMV a visit, is that a threat of physical harm?
In his letter, Sheehan instructed:
“You are going to reinstate my driving privileges and mail me, without any visit on my part to a now-distant driver’s license bureau, a brand new driver’s license with my beautiful face on it using the photo(s) you already have from my last visit to the driver’s license bureau in Venice.”
He also orders them to pay $200 for his pain and suffering while giving them seven days to comply.
By the way, do you know what the biggest problem is with a iron garden? Mowing.
Sheehan is charged with threatening public servants, extortion, and intimidation by a written threat to kill or injure. He is being held in lieu of $750,000 bond.
For the full story, click here.
AY,
That’s awful. I’m not sure what the procedure is across the country, but in Ontario we actually have complete community based court support mental health diversion programs in place for victimless crimes. Like yours there, our jails & prisons are jam packed, and several years ago the government decided that it made far more sense to treat someone’s symptoms rather than allow them to sit in a cell with festering symptoms only to be released back into the comunity at 1/3rd served and still sick. The Diversion plan that a mentally ill person has to follow is quite stringent and involves anything from medication compliance to vocational training to addictions re-hab…and everything in between. All services are community based, and if completed without incident the person walks away well, with ogoing services and no criminal record. Might I add, at a fraction of the cost to jail them!
In cases involving victims ( assualt charges, threatening, murder, arson etc. etc. ) a person is assessed by forensic psychiatry and if deemed “Not Criminally Responsible” they are placed in a forensic unit for treatment of their metal illness. It can take a great many years to be fully community based again, and even then these people are often under an NCR for many more years or life ( depending on the crime ). However even under an NCR people can re-establish life in the community with conditions ( maintaining treatment, drug testing etc. ). That being said, there are still people who have mental illness but were not deemed NCR behind prison walls. These people also have treatment available to them while there, and often are contained in a special needs unit or a regional treatment centre.
Jericho,
Thank-you!
Canadian Eh makes the best point I’ve heard in a long time.
We don’t need no cops on the block, rather a shrink and a good Greek school. More doctors and teachers on the streets could probably wipe out most of crime, poverty, the deficit, income equality and obesity in what,… a small decade?
Just thinking out loud here.
Canadian Eh.,
Here in the US most of the time I would say 99% of the time it is yes. Most don’t give a shit and are processing paperwork. Very few Judges even notice. The Prosecutor has numbers to show the public, the cops could care less and mostly the really bad one are shot. I would guess that a lot of the Court appointed defense attorney’s don’t have a clue of what a mental illness is.
I would say less than 1 percent of the mental cases that need psy care get it. The Prison system does have max facilities that they warehouse them in until they are released.
oops…that should read ” symptomatic “
AY,
So even if someone is clearly mentally ill and cymptomatic while committing a criminal offence they go to jail and not hospital?
Canadian Eh,
In the US the Criminal Justice system is not rehabilitation it is retribution. Very little is put into the state systems unless Federally mandated.
Mr Sheehan is clearly suffering from a delusional disorder. Why was he sent to prison rather than hospitalized for a psych assessment?
Mr. Sheehan’s hirsute features give the Islamic women’s case for wearing a burkha for their driver’s license another “complexion”.
I defy the police to identify either with the obscuring object removed. More false arrests on the way?
That fellow has Charlie Manson eyes. The musically inclined here can hum along with this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Al9blQOhNw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Srsly crazy, scary eyes.
I couldn’t find a definition for “iron garden” anywhere. I guess “You are going to wait for your day of reckoning when I pull all of you lying pigs into an iron garden from which you will not escape” can mean anything or nothing at all.
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure.” —Thomas Jefferson
These folks at the DMV should just be glad that he didn’t cast a spell on them.
Here in Ohio, the minute it snows or rains the DMV computers shut down and no one in any of the state-wide offices can do any business. Pity the poor individual on his lunch hour, having filled out the form, had his picture snapped and then held hostage for the next couple of hours because it started to snow shutting down the computers before the receipt was generated indicating how much to charge him.
He can’t leave without paying, he can’t stay and be late for work … the Ohio DMV very regularly morphs into its own Iron Garden.
At the end of his letter:
“P.S.: Stop saying I’m crazy!”
No Iron Garden would be complete without an Iron Butterfly.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJqhScdbo8I&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
“I am not sure what an iron garden may be, but the prosecutors will have to show that it involves physical harm to DMV employees.”
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The “iron garden” reference intrigued me and I did some research. I think our handsome swine-o-phile is referring to a “pig trap” used to capture feral pigs or boar in the Florida swamps. Here’s some info for the hopelessly curious like me:
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/traps/pig_traps.html
Put me down for a “Deluxe” model.
Chris,
I think I know what you mean. My family(s) has section/area in Hollywood and Glenwood that has granite borders around the enclosure with wrought iron fencing. They are both very old.
I think “iron garden” means cemetery, from the iron fence around many small ones. I guess it sounds more threatening than “stone garden” (from the headstones).
You need a Drivers License in Florida? Really. Could have fooled me. Try Miami any time of day.
“By the way, do you know what the biggest problem is with a iron garden? Mowing.”
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I would have thought rust!