Posted on 03/14/2002 3:48:13 AM PST by visagoth
Man goes to prison for post office assault with buckets of feces Wednesday, March 13, 2002 By Barton Deiters
An unrepentant James Beal will spend 18 months in federal prison for throwing three 5-gallon buckets filled with porcupine feces, worms and parasites at workers in the Empire Post Office. The 62-year-old pleaded guilty in December to three counts of assaulting federal employees for the Oct. 18 incident, which occurred the day after he was fired for unsatisfactory work. U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist heard from victims Tuesday who told of the horror and disgust of being soaked with the fecal matter and the embarrassment of being the butt of jokes when the incident gained national attention, including a mention on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. Wisecracks came from radio shows and people on the street. A store in the Leelanau County community sold Empire Porcupine Poop candy. But the victims were not laughing. "You felt like it was permeating your skin" said Tanis Lehmann, a visiting postmaster from Cedar who heard the screams of her female co-workers. Beal already had soaked Postmaster Virginia Raz and clerk Lorna BonJernoor and was returning to the office with a third bucket. Lehmann said she stood 5 feet away from Beal trying to reason with him. "I said 'Jim don't. Jim, don't,'" she said. She testified that Beal just glared at her then threw the fecal matter, drenching her from head to toe. As the victims testified, Beal would smile and sometimes chuckle. When Beal stood to speak he did not deny that he threw the feces, but said he had reason to do it. He said he was fired from the $7.70-per-hour job after less than a week for no good reason. "This was an assault on my person," Beal said. "If my conduct was reprehensible, then their conduct was reprehensible. "There is an equivalency," he said. Quist disagreed. "If everybody could throw s--- at people who've hurt their feelings, what kind of society would we live in?" Quist said. The judge said far from being remorseful, Beal seemed to glory in the acts. Quist used that criteria, in part, to justify deviating from sentencing guidelines, which would have called for a shorter sentence for the man with no criminal record. In addition to the 18-month prison sentence, Quist ordered Beal to pay about $10,000 in fines, fees and restitution. Although Beal's attorney was paid by the government, Beal owns a $500,000 home and has another residence near Chicago as well as $40,000 in liquid assets and a $30,000 retirement fund. Beal was also banned from the Empire Post Office and told to have no contact with the victims. Tuesday was not Lehmann's first time giving a victim impact statement. She also had to testify in November 1998 at the trial of a man convicted of bludgeoning and then strangling her 26-year-old son in Dayton, Ohio. The murderer was a disgruntled employee. Through sobs, Lehmann said the assault at the post office brought back memories. "There was no way to escape and it was frightening and horrible beyond description," said Raz, who called Beal the night before the assault and fired him. "This whole thing has been a real stinging disappointment in humanity." After the sentencing, the victims and their families discussed the outcome with Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Courtade. They said understood that the judge gave him the maximum punishment allowed. "All we ever did was try to help him, we all bent over backwards," Raz said. "He showed no remorse." Beal's attorney asked that Beal be allowed to turn himself in at a later date. However, Quist instead had a federal marshal take Beal into custody immediately. "He has a history of reacting badly to bad news," Quist said.
The Grand Rapids Press
This is a followup to an earlier story about 'Mr Porcupine Feces'....
I am still wondering how one gathers porcupine feces? House pet?
Now you really gotta give the guy about an 8.5 for originality. Personally I once tried robbing a bakery
by threatening to leave a picture of Hillary on the counter. That bavarian cream filling is so good!
"The 62-year-old pleaded guilty in December to three counts of assaulting federal employees for the Oct. 18 incident, which occurred the day after he was fired for unsatisfactory work. "
. . .he obviously had a good reason. . .
. . .no doubt, he was just a normal hard working guy, doing his job and his mean boss could not appreciate how hard he worked. . .
Gives a whole new meaning to "Going Postal"
Maybe he couldn't get a CCP.
He was reloading?? Why could no one stop the madness?
"Oh gawd, here he comes again. Look out. He's gone poostal. Mygawd, he must have a whole ARSEnal. The basturd!!!"
How did he wrangle that deal?
Meanwhile..
Bah bah black sheep porcupine
have you any poop
yes sir yes sir three buckets full..
So if you come across a Porcupine Den, it usually has a large pile of dung at the base of the tree. Large as in, sometimes 3 5 gallon buckets full.
I thought DU had their own web site?
I'm trying to find a quality story to post in that forum every day in order to entice people to use it.
A story about buckets of porcupine poop is great material. Now, I'll have to find something else.
Um, "Jesse Jackson's America"?
And he wanted a $7.70 hourly wage bad enough to go to prison?
This does not compute.
Either he's some inbred slug who just came into a massive inheritance, or he farted too hard and lost his mind.
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