Posted on 03/26/2013 8:30:28 AM PDT by smoothsailing
March 25, 2013
By Laura Byrne and Katie LaPotin
Punxsutawney Phil may be able to keep his job after all!
An Ohio prosecutor is reconsidering the charges he levied last week against Pennsylvania’s most famous rodent after Phil’s caretaker admitted that he was solely responsible for the false weather prediction he relayed on February 2.
“I’m the guy that did it,” Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle told Fox News. “I’ll be the fall guy. It’s not Phil’s fault.”
Deeley also added that he mistook Phil’s ”groundhog-ese” whatever that is for a sign that spring was coming, and that this is the second year in a row he’s failed to accurately relay Phil’s prediction.
Michael Gmoser, the prosecuting attorney in Butler County, Ohio announced earlier today that he is not only reconsidering the charges but he may even issue a full pardon to the rodent. Gmoser originally charged Phil with one count of “misinterpretation of early spring,” a charge that if convicted bears the death penalty.
Gmoser also called Phil “a cute little rascal, a cute little thing,” adding that “If somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I’m willing to listen.”
But while Gmoser might be letting Phil off the hook, the groundhog is now wanted in Montgomery County, Md. for fraud. Police are still searching, but so far all they know is “he may be hiding in a hole.”
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Groundhog Day festivities, a Pennsylvania tradition since 1887, attracts visitors from around the world. The holiday was also the subject of the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray.
Sometime during the 1980s, New York City decided to get in on the action and created their own forecasting groundhog, Staten Island Chuck. It should be noted that he also predicted an early spring this year.
Gmoser’s original indictment can be read below:
ping
Ping
The charges need to be rescinded, after all they did not have a shadow of a chance!
Digusting, foul, unnecessary photo.
((Shrug))
Reality is sometimes like that.
good puppy...
if you want some help getting them taken care of, my daughter (age 9) is wanting to start trying to hunt this year.
Whatever you do... don’t bring that savage killer on a beach with baby seals. LOL!
Good dog!!! :o)
I hear they like to go camping near the Artificial Lake.
My dog tells me that Possums like sleeping with the Catfish.
Tell them to back off or the groundhog gets it!
Demote that groundhog down to a hamster and then give him to Richard Gere as a pet.
Here’s an idea. Prosecute the inept, incompetent,constantly wrong, un-scientific ‘meterologists’ who consider themselves entertainers. It’s their JOB to KNOW how to FOREcast the weather- not that of a poor, dumb rodent.So we have a bunch of degree-holding ‘meterologists’ promoting a groundhog as a forecaster of the weather that they- college educated camera-hogs- can’t manage. They get paid-the rodent gets blamed? If you can’t FOREcast, get out of weather forecasting. People’s health and lives depending on knowing what the weather will be.Get these entertainer/buffoons out of meterology and get some scientists in.
Judge probably took him aside and reminded him an Ohio prosecutor doesn’t have jurisdiciton in PA.
I do think what he did was cute - it’s just with all the bad news everyone keeps getting not many are in the mood for humor.
That's an opossum??? That looks just like my cat, no wonder it doesn't meow........
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