Posted on 02/23/2010 7:43:13 AM PST by SmithL
Fort Bragg, Mendocino County -- For someone accused of shooting a 63-year-old former neighbor in front of the man's stunned wife and then standing by for half an hour to watch him die, Aaron Vargas has an awful lot of supporters in this damp little coastal town.
The reason?
Vargas says the dead man, Darrell McNeill, started raping him at the age of 11.
The abuse continued into his 20s, Vargas' relatives say. And even when the now-32-year-old handyman finally broke away, McNeill kept badgering and pursuing him - until finally, Vargas snapped and confronted him.
Nobody disputes that Vargas brought a gun with him when he went to McNeill's home last February. Whether the gun went off by accident or on purpose may be an issue when Vargas goes to trial March 22 - but to his defenders, it's almost immaterial.
That's because just about everyone in this former logging town, now a tourist satellite of Mendocino, believes the molestation story Vargas has told relatives from his jail cell. The only people who want him to do hard time, it seems, are the detectives working the case and the district attorney. Even the victim's widow is calling for leniency.
Popular sympathy only grew as 12 other men came forward over the past year to say they, too, were molested as youngsters by McNeill, a onetime Boy Scout leader and Big Brother. Relatives of another man who committed suicide say McNeill molested him as well.
Vargas, defense lawyers, prosecutors and police are barred from speaking about the case by a gag order that a county judge imposed last summer. But their legal intentions are clear.
The Mendocino County district attorney is seeking a first-degree murder conviction with a possible sentence of 50 years to life.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
McNeill, meanwhile, was considered "a nice guy who gave good service in his business," said City Councilman Jere Melo. He mentored boys in the local Scouts and Big Brother programs in the 1970s and '80s,This is why the Scouts must be ever-vigilant.
Who is the idiot who fabricated this baloney? Next will come legislation to outlaw "hair triggers"!
“Cap and ball revolvers have hair triggers.” BULL! I’ve owned and shot cap and ball pistols and rifles for some time and that is a crock. But using one for this sort of thing is kind of neat. Anyhow, if the abuse story is true, the guy should have a medal, not a trial.
All it takes is for one ignorant reporter to hear one idiotic remark and a new myth is engraved in stone for eternity.
If someone drowned a person using a water pistol with a ‘hair trigger,’ would liberals demand that all water pistols have serial numbers and people be given background checks before being licensed to own one?
Rhetorical question.
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