Saturday, March 28, 2009

An arrogant judge, the EPA, and a shoot-out

Expect a variation of this one to show up on a Law and Order type TV show sometime soon...
A man's arrested in Utah for some EPA violations (illegally dumping chemicals). He has a bunch of weapons on him and talks about wanting to go down "in a blaze of glory." He goes to court, the prosecutor tells the judge that the man needs to be locked up until trial because he's dangerous. The judge basically laughs at the prosecutor. "He was arrested for an EPA violation! He's not dangerous!" The prosecutor asked again. The judge actually threatened the prosecutor with disciplinary action--twice--because the prosecutor was so insistent. Even the defense attorney felt that the judge treated the prosecutor unfairly. Finally, the judge released the man until the trial date, and ordered that his guns be taken from him.
The man doesn't show up for his trial. He's disappeared. He goes on the EPA's most-wanted list. The EPA receives a tip that he's in Florida. They find him as he pulls an automatic weapon. The EPA officers, not exactly the most gun-ready types (this was the first time any EPA officer has been forced to shoot in the line of duty), manage to shoot him first. He's injured badly, and taken to the hospital. Inside his truck and trailer? 3000 rounds of ammo, much of it illegal (as was his automatic .308), along with additional guns.
Yeah. He's not dangerous.
I hope that a certain judge is feeling like an idiot right now.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Agreed.

childishkim said...

absolutely, man!