Man arrested for endangering earthworms
OK, so maybe that’s not the charge, but those were the only living creatures endangered when Dennis Fleming, 61, of Farmington, New Hampshire came home and found his own home burglarized and saw Joseph Hebert, 27 coming out of a neighbor’s window. Fleming fired his legally-owned weapon into the ground to get Hebert’s attention and then held him for police. The police then put both men in handcuffs (Fox News link);
Fleming…is scheduled to be arraigned March 20 on a charge of reckless conduct, which could potentially land him a sentence similar to the one Hebert faces.
“I didn’t know it was illegal [to fire into the ground], but I had to make that guy realize I was serious,” Fleming said. “I’ve got a clean record. I really don’t want to be convicted.”
County Attorney Tom Velardi told Foster’s Daily Democrat he will review the case and determine if the charge against Fleming is appropriate under the state statutes regarding self-defense and defense of property.
I hope the city attorney comes to his senses and sees that Fleming made the best choice he could in that set of circumstances, and be grateful that Fleming didn’t make him prosecute a murder case instead.
Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.
Category: Guns
I don’t see where the homeowner did anything wrong. Stopped the burglar didn’t it? Instead of having to fill out a report as to why there is a dead body he shot the ground. Makes sense.
This is one town over from me. In fact, we’ve had a shitload of burglaries in the area from druggies trying to finance their habits.
The man in question, IMO, did only one thing wrong in firing a warning shot, but even doing that doesn’t rise to felony reckless endangerment–a crime which, BTW, is a B-felony punishable here by 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison. For putting a slug in the ground instead of the perp?
Sorry, but the guy should get a medal.
If the DA even BLINKS on this one, he’s as good as gone in November. I’ll personally work on getting him out of office. He doesn’t want that kind of publicity.
That being said, this should be an interesting test of the “Stand Your Ground” law which was just enacted (overriding the Governor’s veto) in September. I just can’t see a grand jury handing down an indictment on this.
Correction to last: we have county attorneys here, not DA’s. Same diff. though. And I don’t like the fact they’ve got all his guns until a probable cause hearing next month. Meanwhile the perp gets three hots and a cot because they don’t take bail payments in Oxycodone pills.
I agree the guy should get a medal. The perp will be back to robbing before this guy gets cleared and all his guns back. That is one thing I can’t stand.
A little background on NH’s Stand Your Ground law:
http://perry4nh.blogspot.com/2011/09/update-on-new-hampshire-senate-bill-88.html
And text of the bill itself:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2011/SB0088.html
I dunno, I’m no TSO, but it looks like Mr. Fleming should never have been charged, and the county attorney would be a fool or idiot (or both) to pursue this further.
This is a pathetic joke. What the hell happened to common sense? The neighbor stopped a robbery and didn’t use deadly force…he fired a shot into the ground. This guy should be given a medal and instead he has to pay court costs….total disgrace. Then you wonder why people don’t intervene and help their fellow man…because every single f’n thing is f’n illegal.
Ray–you think that’s bad, the whole reason this came up was because of the Ward Bird case a couple of years back. THAT was a fucking travesty of justice.
And the governor only commuted the guy’s sentence, he never got a pardon, so he’s still a convicted felon, meaning he’ll never get his weapons back.
My parents came home to a burgulary in progress on their farm a few yrs back. Dad retrieved his .45 when he went inside and cleared the house. He and my mother then shouted for the perp to come out of the woods behind the house and if they were in trouble, they could come out without concern. Nobody came out so dad put a few hollowpoints into the bushes. About an hour later the cops rolled up the 20 yo girl about a mile from the house, cut up from briars but no worse for the wear. No charges, but the shots weren’t in any city limits and in a reasonably safe direction. Staties were glad that my folks a)were willing to defend themselves, b)were fully respectful with them–offer of iced tea/coffee when they were taking report, etc, and c)actually willing to prosecute. It didn’t hurt when I gave them my bona fides as a LEO and thanked them when my mother called me.
This was in Pennsyltucky so no DA who ever wants to get reelected would even think of bringing Dad up on charges.
When my father got to the trial to give testimony, he learned the perp either killed herself or OD’d accidentally while out on bail. Case closed, tough shit.
That’s the problem with NH, Raven…there are NO “unincorporated” areas. You could be (quite literally) miles from your nearest neighbor and still be within town limits, and if the cops wanted to be dicks and arrest you for firing a weapon “in town”, so be it.
No offense to the LEO’s in general, but cops in this town/state/region don’t impress me a whole lot.
From a PoPo point of view from liberal California, it doesn’t sound like he should have been arrested and his weapons taken. If they really had to do something for the discharge of the weapon, you would think there was some minor city ordinance they could have given him a ticket for and released on the spot with a thanks for catching the a-hole burglar. Any good DA or judge would then dismiss the ticket.
Well, looks like FoxNews has the story now. Currently it’s featured in the “Latest News” part of their website.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/new-hampshire-man-faces-felony-charge-after-firing-gun-into-ground-near-burglar/
Maybe this will cause enough public backlash to jar the prosecutor’s mind out of neutral, and he’ll do the right thing and drop the charges today.
http://fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120222/GJNEWS_01/702229932
Looks like the County Attorney is definitely getting an earful. I wish people wouldn’t be assholes about it, but yeah, he doesn’t deserve to keep his job if he proceeds with charges against Mr. Fleming.
And as for the perp, his crybaby bullshit about, “I need help, not prison” are really tugging at my heartstrings. NOT.
Update: Just announced that county attorney is dropping all charges against Mr. Fleming, no other charges will be forthcoming.
Guess he saw the writing on the wall.
That’s great! Thanks for letting us know, Sparky!
Wow, common sense in action. Good news.
Because unfortunately, common sense often isn’t all that common.
If it had happened a few miles south, he’d still be in jail. Glad to see that my home state hasn’t gone too far off of the reservation while I’ve been gone.