Posted on 12/29/2004 9:49:58 AM PST by inquest
Inspectors from Federal Protective Services — a branch of the Homeland Security Department — arrested a Bettendorf chiropractor Friday accused of making harassing phone calls to the Department of Veterans Affairs office in Des Moines.
Kenneth C. Tennant, 45, 3447 Magnolia Court, remained in the Polk County, Iowa, jail late Friday afternoon, charged with third-degree harassment.
Although it is a state charge — and a misdemeanor — Federal Protective Service, or FPS, personnel were involved because the VA office is a federal facility, said special agent Wil Calvey.
The FPS provides law enforcement and security services to more than 1 million tenants and daily visitors to all federally owned and leased facilities nationwide, according to its mission statement. FPS focuses directly on the interior security of the nation and the reduction of crimes and potential threats to federal facilities.
Calvey said two inspectors from Des Moines had been investigating Tennant after receiving complaints from the VA office.
“He had been harassing them for the past three years,” said Calvey. “We were looking at the messages and while there were no direct threats, the language was abusive and derogatory and seemed to be getting worse.”
Proactive measures
The specific nature of the calls, or a dispute between Tennant and the VA, was not divulged by FPS officials or the VA.
Calvey said the elevated threat of terrorism, coupled with a better understanding of workplace violence, have led the service to take a more proactive approach to dealing with harassment.
“We are trying to nip these things in the bud rather than let them escalate into a greater problem,” he said. “When you let things go, and people are not punished, they get worse and you have an increased chance of an incident where someone is injured or killed.”
Tennant will be prosecuted by the Polk County Attorney’s office, not in federal court, Calvey added. His bond was set at $325.
Tennant works at American Family Chiropractic, 1530 State St., where he shares an office with three other chiropractors. One of the doctors, who did not wish to give her name, said she was surprised by the charges and was not aware Tennant had a dispute with the VA.
According to federal court records, Tennant filed a lawsuit in 1998 disputing a denial of disability insurance benefits and Supplemental Security Income. After a two-year legal battle, the U.S. Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit upheld the denial.
Don't you just love it when law enforcement gets "proactive"?
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By the way, I know this story is a month and a half old. I poked around and couldn't find it posted on FR, so sorry if it's a duplicate.
Your point?
> ... there were no direct threats ...
So, what, exactly, is the Department of PreCrime
going to charge him with?
Whatever that is...a local, Iowa state law apparently.
The Doctor is a Gulf War I veteran who is suffering from DU poisoning, and who has been trying for eight years to get the VA to give him his disability benefits. He was simply trying to find out the status of his claim which is languishing on someone's desk.
His letters and calls to the VA were termed "annoying" in the complaint filed by these bureaucratic losers.
Welcome to the police state.
If what he did was really that heinous and illegal, then fine, charge him. But the reference to terrorism was utterly gratuitous and inappropriate.
Which makes one wonder exactly what the "Federal Protective Services" were doing getting involved.
The FPS provides law enforcement and security services to more than 1 million tenants and daily visitors to all federally owned and leased facilities nationwide, according to its mission statement. FPS focuses directly on the interior security of the nation and the reduction of crimes and potential threats to federal facilities
I don't have to read it ,listen or respond to it on FR ...Telephone calls to the VA are different. Perhaps he was going over the line as the Court decided against him..I have no idea what he said or how often he said it but some employees obviously had had it with the harrassment.
I think you are reading about the future owner of every homeland security building as well as every va hospital in america after he wins the lawsuit he is goingot file when he posts bail
Therefore he's a security threat? A potential terrorist, no less? Makes no sense.
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