Kevin Maynard, 59, wants to plead guilty and I can understand why. He is charged with a crime that few jurors would not recoil at. He is a worker at the Rhode Island Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery and is accused of stealing more than 150 granite gravestones to pave the floor of his garage and shed.
Maynard is charged with felony theft of government property — a charge that does not seem to capture the enormity of his crime in dishonoring these veterans and possibly traumatizing family members disturbed by the thought of their loved one’s marker being used as flooring in a garage. However, this offense can come with a maximum of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and supervised release for three years.
Investigators say that they found the markers serving as flooring in makeshift garages and a shed at Maynard’s Charlestown, Rhode Island home. They also found a box of stolen flags.
Maynard may have justified the act as merely reusing such stones. Cracked or deteriorated stones are also replaced for free, and the damaged ones are stacked in an area at the cemetery until they can be hauled away to be destroyed. However, these grave markers remain government property. That creates an interesting couple of countervailing elements. On one hand, even the use of damaged tombstones for flooring dishonors the memory of these veterans. On the other hand, these stones would have been disposed of by the government. The mix of aggravating and mitigating factors will have to be balanced by the court at sentencing.
His lawyer has indicated that he will change his plea to guilty as soon as he goes before a federal judge.
Source: WTOP
Mark, it’s a common tactic for some folks here to call into question other commenter’s mental health and capacity when they disagree with them. It a low and weak tactic, used by some people here who I think should know better.
or troll to be paid much!
bam bam, of course being a superior being, I bow to you. paid to troll much??
I think that the bigger question is why are some people so incapable of the simplest of tasks, like the one which involves merely addressing and speaking to/on the topic at hand? Every random thought–whether it is pertinent to the article or not–is thrown in. Lobbyists. Wall Street. Congress. Martians. Racism. The list is endless. One can only wonder what handicap prevents those people from just commenting on a particular set of facts and giving an opinion, without the need to question why a very specific article does not succeed in addressing every imaginable problem impacting mankind. Strange and bizarre, to say the least. Probably indicative of some mental health issue, where one is incapable of concentrating on one set of facts and issues, without resorting to referencing any and all transient thoughts. There is a time and a place for everything. Not every article will address every topic. This article was specifically about an individual who chose to line a floor in his home with discarded veteran grave markers. Not interested in the subject matter? Fine. Skip it. Don’t read it. Questioning the hurt or dismay–genuinely expressed by those who truly feel that this behavior was disrespectful to the lives and memories of the veterans–indicates a much deeper problem. I guess that you can’t give anyone a heart.
Hear hear Mark! These faux outrage articles are just fluff when there are so many more serious issues to fret over.
@Isaac Totally agree…it’s seems to be much ado about nothing. Deceptive headline sets up the reader for justified cyber outrage. Then we find that the guy didn’t take headstones away from the graves of the veterans, but did steal soon to be recycled material from the government. Punish him for that, but for God’s sake give up the faux outrage over the perceived desecration of the memories of these brave men and women…blah, blah, blah.
The collective guilt felt by the American populace over the way Vietnam vets were treated, has led to today’s blind over adulation of the military and veterans. The military is just a tool of the 0.1% who own the country…or at least its politicians. They use this expensive tool to dominate the world economically, not for protecting our rights….and those are being slowly removed anyway as our Constitutional rights are deemed a threat to maintaining order for the Powers That Be (TPTB).
Heed the warning of President Eisenhower’s farewell address when he warned us of the vast power of the Military Industrial Complex, who pay filthy sums of $$$ to lobbyists and Congressvillians, perverting our foreign policy, and directing as much of our taxpayer $$$ to their own coffers.
Heed the warning of Congressional Medal of Honor winner, General Smedley Butler, who had an epiphany once he was out of the military and no longer constrained by its narrow minded chain of command thinking:
” I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
So please save your faux outrage. Express your justifiable outrage to your Congress critter, over your vanishing Constitutional rights, the misallocation our YOUR tax dollars, the flat out gambling done by the above the law, Too Big To Prosecute Wall street elite.
mark
ps I am a veteran.
bam, borderline personalities, when in manic phase, aren’t content w/ hijacking a thread. They hijack an entire blog. It’s always more sane in the morning.
Unconnected to this article, not unconnected this article.
Only people who are, not people that are.
I. Annie
This article is about someone using headstones to line the floor in his home. Those who honor and respect the dead, especially veterans who have fought and died for this country, find Maynard’s actions to be deplorable. I would assume, as a mother of a woman in the service, that you would also view his use of gravestones as deplorable. There is no fake concern, only people that are incapable of staying focused enough on the topic at hand. You are concerned that there is no mention of five dead military members? Well, maybe because that is way off topic–not that it is an unimportant topic, just unconnected this article. How could that possibly be relevant to some bozo lining his home with grave markers? No mention about UFO encounters either. World hunger was ignored, as well. You’ve been hanging around po for too long. Why is it impossible to discuss one specific topic without mentioning every random thought that passes through your mind?
All the fake concern about these headstones from certain quarters, not one word about five dead military members.
Isaac, LOL, BASTA!!!!
Isaac, Anyone who knows me will tell you I am cool as the other side of the pillow. I ALWAYS have a grip.
The only person that can answer this question is the dead one in the grave. He, or she, has a brand new stone marker. He, or she, would then be asked, if possible, if they would rather have the old marker used as a garage floor tile or have it smashed into aggregate.
Nick
Been there, done that, and found out that the more American the guy the more they respect someone who speaks their mind, someone they signed on to defend, also we used to end up on the same page. We only came from different directions. There were no absolutes laid down. Everyone was confident enough in their position to lay it out without fear of the ‘absolute’ reprisal. You really have to get a grip on yourself.
That is so awful!!! This was thriftiness with a complete lack of ethics.
I wondered why these markers were not offered to family, but I suppose that would be impossible. You’d have to determine who was a legitimate descendent or relative.
It is a legitimate argument to discuss what to do with broken markers. Anyone who has lost a loved one should think about what it would feel like to see their marker covered in oil stains. I do wonder what becomes of them in the typical removal process.
Isaac, Care to go into a bar w/ Navy Seals and spout your views? I’ll be happy to point the way for you.
Articles, not articless.
While the article mentions that Maynard MAY have simply viewed these defective or damaged markers as trash, were these items ACTUALLY defective, damaged and placed aside as refuse? That seems to be a critical question. Claiming that the placement of these markers–where one could identify them as trash–may serve as an explanation for his behavior, yet it isn’t the same as claiming that is what transpired. At a certain point, property is deemed to be abandoned and it is no longer a crime to appropriate those items. I have a feeling that the cemetery’s policy, regarding the disposal of old and useless markers, was not a mystery to Maynard. Even if he had been granted permission to take these items, one would think that someone working at a cemetery for veterans would have more respect and honor for the brave souls who fought, and died, for this country than to pave a floor with these markers. Some articless, by their very nature, should not be recycled. These grave markers fit into that category. It is strangely reminiscent of photos that I have viewed which show where the Nazis used Jewish gravestones to surface roads. Same chilling mentality. I guess that Maynard was also recycling the box of stolen flags found in his home.
Paul
My point, it is all about a technicality. He didn’t ask.