Another veterans’ plea for help lands him in court
Sean Duvall, a 45-year-old homeless Navy Persian Gulf War veteran made a call to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs hotline when he was contemplating killing himself with a gun he’d made. The counselor sent the police to pick him up and they got him to a VA treatment facility and now that it seems that he’s on the way to recovery, the federal prosecutor is filing charges against him (Washington Post link);
Duvall, who served in the Navy and lives outside Roanoke, now faces four federal counts related to manufacturing and possessing the homemade gun, which could lead to a 40-year prison sentence.
Veterans groups and mental health advocates warn that Duvall’s prosecution could have a chilling effect on distressed veterans who might be contemplating suicide.
“Every veteran I’ve talked to is outraged,” said Dan Karnes, president of the Roanoke Valley Veterans Council. “When we have veterans that are coming back from wars now, they’ll think twice about seeking help when they see what was done to him.”
And, oh, yeah, the persecutor pursuing charges, well he just happens to be DVA administrator Eric Shinseki’s son-in-law, Timothy Heaphy;
Through a spokesman, Heaphy declined to comment. But his office has argued that it has an obligation to prosecute Duvall, who admitted to making and possessing the weapon and was on the Virginia Tech campus, the site of a mass shooting in 2007, at the time of his call.
He’s such a coward that he had to “decline comment” through a spokesperson? Yeah, this will go a long way towards veterans seeking help. Do we have to talk to our lawyers before we call the hotline?
It brings to mind the case of Matthew Corrigan that we discussed several days ago.
Category: Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
Way to go, now no one will call if they’re in trouble, because they won’t want to go to fucking jail. Do these numbnuts even think? I urge every Vet to call their congresscritter and get a hold of their US Senators and start bitching riki tik. This isn’t an outrage, this is a clusterfuck of the first order.
I will be on the horn to every one of them today.
he made a call for help and now he’s facing charges of 40 years?! seriously? i don’t want to live on this planet anymore!
“manufacturing and possessing the homemade gun”
Uhhhhh, since when has this been illegal?
Damn, when I get my HK added to the NFA list as a SBR technically I “manufactured” a gun. And people buy 80% receivers all the time.
This makes me incredibly glad that I resigned the Police Academy down in Roanoke! Down there, even though there are a mess of Veterans in the PD there, the Chief, who has NEVER served has a serious disdain for those in the Military. Many of the others in my Academy class and many of the Officers on the street had a serious dislike of Veterans, they see us as a threat to their advancement, or as unstable do to PTSD. This is probably the same as what was going on with that Orange County Deputy as well.
This is bad all the way around. What a message to send to people, especially veterans who need the help…
Yeahhhhhh Welcome to Roanoke Virginia, where they do shit bass ackwards
I’m in agreement with everything that you say here, and that my friend is a rarity.
What does this prosecutor do on his days off? Kick puppies? Drown kittens??
The very fact that this man called for help should mitigate any legal circumstance that may have presented itself.
Once again, some miserable bastard politician has seen fit to stand on a defenseless man’s neck. They better start to realize that WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND.
Wow good thing I didn’t call the local authorities when I was living down in VA otherwise I might have been in the same boat. This shouldn’t even go to court. He called for help not to be arrested. Makes me wonder what would have happened if he didn’t.
@9: He probably would have taken himself deep. Now that this story is out there and it seems the VA has a slight credibility issue because of it; we will, unfortunately see more Vets in trouble taking themselves out instead of seeking help from the VA. Then you will have the media slobbering on themselves about the alarming rise in Vet suicides and wondering why the DVA hasn’t done anything to address the problem.
OT, the media won’t even go that far, they won’t CARE. They will just associate this shit with The Great Santini and The Deer Hunter like they always do and say we all were irrevocably mindfucked my the military we served. They will say we shouldn’t be allowed to associate with mainstream society. That one is coming, watch!
First vet that commits suicide because they were afraid to call for help because of the repurcussions, I will, as the Facebook kid said, “flip shit.”
Absolutely NO fucking excuse for this.
Sparky,
The first time a veteran kills himself because he was to afraid to call the “help” line, there ought to be a charge of “assisted suicide” if not manslaughter filed against this District Attorney.
You want to know how to stop this nonsense cold? The governor could issue a full pardon to this guy, and do so to everyone else caught up like this in Virginia until the nonsense stops.
I’m pretty sure I knew this guy’s lawyer many moon ago. If so, Duvall’s got a pretty capable guy working his case.
Not sure I can say much good about the prosecutor at this point. Prosecutors have broad discretion on which cases to file. Can’t see any reason – other than padding the resume by scoring an easy win or scoring political points with the anti-gun crowd – why the prosecutor doesn’t offer the guy pretrial diversion to the Veterans Treatment Court. It’s apparently designed to help just such people as Duvall, and is described near end of this article:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/304757
JAGC/TSO/Susan, your thoughts? As I recall you’re the ones here with the legal licenses.
AW1 Tim: state governors cannot pardon people for federal offenses. Only the POTUS has that legal authority. Unfortunately for Duvall, he’s facing federal charges rather than state charges.
I can also see this being used to as another reason to put more restrictions on guns. Even though he built it himself they’ll still twist it to work in their favor.
Hondo:
Oh right……. in my indignation I missed the “Federal” part. My bad.
I can guarantee you this much, however: This old veteran will never, ever, call a help line again for any reason. Not a chance. It isn’t worth the risk on any level.
AW1 Tim…
You call me and I’ll help you…nothing a good bottle and some chatter can’t sway! 🙂 I would never leave a fallen comrade!
Stand by for the Revolution!
[…] call for help won’t land him in jail February 28th, 2012 We discussed Sean Duvall whose call to a veterans hotline had him facing charges for manufacturing a crude gun with which […]
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[…] the scene at Matthew Corrigan’s apartment in February 2010. We discussed Corrigan here, here and here when he mistakenly called a suicide hotline and got the DC Metro SWAT crowd instead. But […]