Prosecutor back-pedals on Alemar, speaks an incoherent language
You guys have been sending and posting links for few days to update the story about William Everett Alemar who was arrested by Deputies Barney Fife and Goober Pyle, apparently in Martinsburg, WV for running “near schools” with a an Airsoft rifle. If given an opportunity, I think I’d punch the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely square in whatever set of genitalia she’s sporting for not being able to admit she and the police are wrong in pursuing charges against the young soldier. To wit;
“He is not a danger to the community. It was unique to that moment in time,” Games-Neely said…
That’s how she explains the fact that the soldier, from whom they demanded $50,000 cash bond before he could be released, is suddenly out and running free in the streets without a bond. Yeah, unique to the incident; wtf does that mean? He was a danger to the community last week, but after a week locked up with Otis Campbell, he’s not a danger anymore?
“In the beginning of this case, the Martinsburg Police Department was confronted with a fairly dangerous situation at Martinsburg High School,” Games-Neely said.
I’ve yet to see the address where he was arrested so I can see for myself whether he was “at” or “near” any schools at all. And it was the first day of school, he probably didn’t even realize he was near any school, even if he was.
Games-Neely said “we honor our military” and Alemar was a “decent soldier,” but told the court that authorities were met with a unique set of circumstances at the time of the incident and that police acted appropriately.
Yeah, if they “honor the military”, they’d swallow their pride and back off from the charges. Period. This is all about Mayberry RFD trying their best to mitigate their idiocy.
“The State believes that the evidence supports the felony with which Mr. Alemar is charged. I personally commend the law enforcement officers on the first day of school for their quick and decisive actions in protecting the community and its children from harm,” Games-Neely said in her statement.
Who did the police protect? Who did Alemar threaten? Now Games-Neely is taking quick and decisive actions to save her own reputation. And that of the Mayberry Police Department.
It seems that a condition of Alemar’s release is that he has to “seek treatment” for his problem. The problem being that he’s training for Ranger School, I guess, because no one in their right mind would want to graduate from Ranger School.
“If I had the ability to charge somebody with being stupid, I would have,” Games-Neely said.
But she supports the military. The only stupidity here is the overreaction by the Martinsburg justice system. And, of course, Big Army is more than willing to be her accomplice in the never-ending boobery;
The state has been in touch with Mr. Alemar’s military commanders since last week in an effort to assist in preserving his military career if possible,” Games-Neely later said in a statement.
If he’s the terrorist you said he was last week, ditz, why would you want to preserve his military career, unless you’re willing to also admit that these are specious charges and you’re an incompetent, drama queen boob.
I’d be REAL curious to see the toxicology/drug/alcohol report if they’re so convinced he was “highly intoxicated” (and notice the word “allegedly” appears nowhere in that earlier statement.)
They’re stepping all over their dicks/vaginas on this one and in their wee little minds the only way they can extricate themselves from this hole is to keep digging.
@1….remember when you’re in the s*it…. ” “when in a hole ,DIG FASTER…we’ll get out of this problem sooner!”
/LOL!
It started out exceedingly stupid. These clowns have managed to make it even more stupid now than it began.
Good griefin’ hemlocks. Anyone else want to contribute to everyone running against all involved in this mess who are elected officials?
“…This is all about Mayberry RFD…”
Nope. It isn’t. In any real Mayberry RFD, the cops would have known the soldier and his family, known what he was doing, and simply waved as they passed by. And it’s unlikely they would have been called in the first place.
I grew up in a place like that. If they exist anymore, they’re few and far between.
I’m a grunt not a lawyer so maybe one of you smarter lawyer types can answer a question for me. Could Alemar sue for malicious prosecution if he is cleared of all charges?
Now I am starting to get nervous about training for the Bataan Death March…
“If I had the ability to charge somebody with being stupid, I would have,” Games-Neely said.
Start by throwing your own stupid ass in jail……that’s felony fucking stupid…
I believe this is called the Two-Step…
Just how deadly as a airsoft rifle? Cannot the leos tell the difference between real and play rifles? Maybe they were colorblind and could not see the orange tip? Mr. Alemar is ringing from the opposition party’s lawyers offering to take his case and wanting a very speedy trial. First he drunk and a deadly threat now she says he must seek mental help.We know who needs help.I think this just set the Women’s Movement way back.This is going to cost the city(taxpayers) money.Is the police chief appointed or elected ? Joe
he’s not a danger now, but was at the timje…. what, they thought he was going to feloniously air-soft someone? It does sounds like Ms. Hyphenated DA has been advised to smooth this over before this is renamed Alemar County. Is DA an elected office there?
Given some of the LEO follies we’ve heard over the past few weeks, it sounds like Mr. Alemar would have a better chance of hitting someone at a range of 10 feet with an Airsoft gun than some LEOs on the NYPD would have of hitting their intended target at the same range with a real gun.
I am just checking their BAC charge also .215 at the time of arrest? I think someone might have fucked up a BAC test and gotten something wrong. I don’t know how the BAC test works but with limited O2 and if his body was in anerobic respiration. One of the things that is put out in that kind of respiration is ethyl alcohol…oops the PD fucked up.
God save us from window licking, short bus riding elected morons who don’t know the meaning of common sense and cops who don’t know what descretion is…Barney and partner probably thought they had the reincarnation of Machinegun Kelly. As a retired cop it blows my mind.
@10: I mentioned in the original story that I think most women with the hyphenated last name are evil. She is proving that more and more every time she opens her yapper.
I notice that she isn’t mentioning the “highly intoxicated” bullshit, anymore, also. As Sparky pointed out; I, too, would like to see the toxicology report. This has gone completely FUBAR and she is clueless that it has. As the old Southern saying goes “she’s trying to stuff the shit back in the horse”.
@13: You sound like the type of cop that we had when I was young. They had common sense, which seems to be in short supply these days.
I don’t know I could be wrong, because that is quick thinking without much real research on the subject.
I suspect there is more to this. I’m not sure I call it an over reaction on the part of the police since he was in full battle rattle near the high school (which dosen’t move just becasue school is in or out Jonn) and carrying what looked to the average observer to be an assault rifle about a month after the Colorado shootings. This guy WAS being stupid. Felony charges? Assault? The charges seem a little much. If this soldier does indeed have a problem, this could be a good thing.
HM2 FMF-SW Ret: if you’ll look over the comments on the original thread, I think you’ll find no one was particularly upset that the police stopped and questioned this guy. What was generally held to be stupid was the arrest on what appear to be made-up-out-of-whole-cloth “terroristic threat” charges. Those are very obvious bullshit.
Yeah, in retrospect the guy was foolish to carry what looked like (but wasn’t) a firearm anywhere near a school, given the scaredy-cat nature of many folks these days and recent incidents. But the police here appear to have been totally lacking in judgement and common sense. And the DA seems to be doubling-down on teh stoopid, too.
Jason, I think you are mistaken in your theory about exercise physiology and BAC. Research is conflicting about the actual results in the breath; but in any case the proposed mechanism is not what you suggest. For those studies that did find increased BAC readings after moderate exercise (running up stairs once or twice), the mechanism is because increased circulation through the lungs causes increased offloading of ingested, circulating ETOH into the exhaled breath. But there were studies that had opposite results as well.
What amazes me is that they claim he had a BAC of .215. That would incapacitate most people except for alcoholics with high tolerance. He sure as hell would be able to be out running with a pack on. Presuming that he is the proverbial 70 kg white male, he would have to have drunk about 8 or 9 drinks for a BAC that high. The only patients I see who can tolerate that without falling asleep or being obtunded or at least sloshing drunk are the long-term chronic alcoholics. That doesn’t sound like the victim in this story.
Oops. My comment should read, “He sure as hell would NOT be able to be out running with a pack on.”
What I think happened was something like this…
Concerned citizen overreacting, cop overreacting, vet overreacting, I think some people were called assholes and dickbags, someone decided they were going to throw the book at the guy, a bunch of people getting pissed because people are overreacting…
Now what should have happened….
Concerned citizen overreacts, cops pull over and talk to guy, Vet says he is training for ranger school. Cops say Cool, dumbass civilians are calling in, can you paint your rubber duckie orange? Oh, by the way, here is a Kick ass flag for your backpack! We will start letting people know when they call in being dumbasses. Dumbass DA not involved at all I never hear of this stupid town…YAY WE ALL WIN!!!
Medic 09,
I have been looking at research on the subject and I can’t find a lot on it. That is what I am wondering, it really seems fishy to me. The BAC number seems WAY off, I don’t know if it was done with blood or breath but someone screwed the pooch bigtime on that test.
Not sure if this adds anything substantive to the conversation, but there are some updated quptes from his attorney here: http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=54654
So my understanding of the criminal justice system is to provide punishment and rehabilitation for offenses and to protect our society from offenders.
In this case after the initial interview it was, or should have been, clear that there was zero danger to the community, that an honorably serving veteran was training as part of his service to our nation in preparation to attending ranger school.
With a complete over reaction, 3 people have now conspired to cast aspersions on this young man’s character and mental health. Now that the case is coming apart underneath them, the ringleader is attempting to justify overcharging to accommodate a wrongful arrest. Because the careers of the 3 are more important to them than the wrong they are committing in their application and enforcement of the “law”.
All I can say is that Karma is typically a harsh mistress, I hope she is also vengeful and wreaks appropriate retribution from 3 4ssholes with delusions of their own heroic efforts in the pursuit of a non=case.
@24.
Well said.
Years past when I was a young E-5, I had a 24h CQ shift. Keeping busy as it is boring, I would work out, go for a run, clean, adminin stuff, etc while staying awake for 24h.
Getting off of shift, I was pulled over for not using a blinker. (My fault) I was then accussed of driving under the influence and given a field sobriety test which I had some trouble passing (Reaction times) I subsequently explained I was fatigued by being tired and awake for a full day and was given a breatalyzer, which I passed, because I had not been drinking.
The lawman harrased me another few minutes and the let me go with a warning. (Still to this day I am unsure why he warned me)
My point is, commone sense has to kick in at some point. Luckily for me, this lawaman realized his mistake and extracted himself at my exspense while saving face. Humility is a good thing; ie. no blotter.
I feel for this kid.
First off, I’m with Medic09. If you don’t regularly consume alcohol like a sailor on shore leave (1968 version, that is), you likely won’t be upstanding with a high blood alochol level. And I have my own stories about that, too, including my DPO telling me about spending a week on liberty completely skunked because every time he drank cold water, he was re-intoxicated.
But this isn’t Mayberry RFD, this is bedroom community yuppieville with a population that has panic attacks over anyone who looks out of place or odd, and someone running with a full gear and pack is going to look odd. Sheriff Andy would have known the guy with the pack, told him to put the Airsoft away, and sent him on his way.
Nice. Her credibility is right up there with Nifong.
Burn her career to the ground.
If people could be prosecuted for stuopidity, that DA would be doing 25 to life.
If they could be prosecuted for bad spelling, I’d be her cellmate.
According to the Berkeley County WV website, the Prosecuting Attorney IS an elected position ( http://www.berkeleycountycomm.org/officials/fact-sheet.cfm ), but it is not listed among those being voted upon this year ( http://www.berkeleycountycomm.org/pdf/electionf2012.pdf ).
May I edit my post in #30, please?? Yes, she IS running this year. If she has an opponent, I can’t find one on the list, but then I also missed her name the first time reading through the list, so please don’t take my word for it!
As has been stated in earlier posts, I know this kid well. I was his 1SG from 2009-2011. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that this ridiculuous charge of terrorism has been dropped. It was asinine from the onset.
Yes, he was stupid by running near a school at that time, but from what I understand he had been doing that often over the summer…add kiddos back in school for the first day, and presto it becomes a panic attack.
As I hear about this more and more, it stinks. One of the arresting officers is in the same Infantry Bn in the Virginia Army National Guard as Alemar is….and I think he knows who he is. Why couldn’t he have spoken up a bit more.
Also strange is the complete absence of anything to do with drunk in public or public intoxication as a charge. if he did have a .215, where is the charge for it? He is about 5’6″ and 150 lbs (if that). With a .215 he should have been so loopy he would have been wearing his kit on backwards.
The charge as it stands now is assault. He didn’t touch anyone, he complied fully with every requests the officers made, he didn’t verbally threaten anyone. This charge will most likely be dropped, but it’s asinine as well.
I appreciate all the help everyone here has done to get the word out about SPC William (Billy) Alemar and believe it’s one of the reasons the DA had to backpedal. Imagine if the power of getting this story out nationwide did not exist. This poor kid would be in jail. I’ve promised him that he’s going to get a punch in head for being this stupid, but I’m thrilled he’s been released.
Maybe the arresting officer who was from his Bn was jealous because Alemar was going to go to Ranger school, and he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be the first time I saw someone try to sink another’s career/life over jealousy.