Posted on 09/01/2005 9:51:24 AM PDT by NYer
TAMPA BAY, August 31, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Ten year-old Joshua Heldreth, the eldest of eight children, was arrested on Good Friday of this year for trespassing while attempting to bring a drink of water to Miss Terri Schaivo. Days later Schiavo died of intentional dehydration. In court Joshua pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and ordered to write an apology for his actions.
The boy whose arrest photo was splashed on front pages of newspapers across the nation wrote in his apology letter, "I was arrested on Good Friday for trespassing on the hospice center's property . . . Not giving Mrs. Shiavo (sic) food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenceless. So I had to go on your property to try to bring her a drink."
Joshua added, "I am sorry that you didn't like that and wouldn't allow me to help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why. I won't be able to help you then like I tried to help her. I will pray for you every day . . ."
LifeSiteNews.com caught up with Joshua's father Scott Heldreth today. Scott told LifeSiteNews.com he is very proud of his son. "My son has amazed me through this whole thing," said Heldreth. The proud father said it was his son's own initiative to attempt to give the starving woman a glass of water, and despite the warning of his parents that he'd be arrested, the boy insisted. "He was the one who begged us to go down, because he wanted to give her a glass of water . . . We explained that police will never let you help . . . you'll be arrested, but he went anyways."
Pro-life leader Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America told LifeSiteNews.com that the whole pro-life movement shares Heldreth's pride in his son. Benham recalls the reaction of Heldreth on Good Friday as he watched his son being arrested: "When that all took place Scott was weeping, this father was weeping tears of joy seeing his son not only talk the Christian talk but walk the walk."
While the apology letter has been submitted, Heldreth told LifeSiteNews.com he's not completely sure it will be accepted.
See Joshua's full handwritten apology letter here:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/JoshuaApolog...
Particularly not a 10-year old who lives with his family in a town 625 miles away from the hospice. The Heldreths make their home in Kannapolis, NC. Joshua did not drive himself to Pinellas Park.
I didn't realize that - that is one motivated boy, huh?
How could you convict a ten year old of any crime (bar the most heinous - which is rare), let alone this act of goodness, and force him to apologise?!?!?!?!?!
Wow!! I am filled with emotion, and there are tears in my eyes.
I'd like to post his "apology" again:
"I was arrested on Good Friday for trespassing on the hospice center's property . . . Not giving Mrs. Shiavo (sic) food or water was wrong. The reason I had to go on your property was because Jesus would do the same thing. It made me sad that she was so thirsty and it made Jesus sad too. I knew she would die without water and I am called by Jesus to be a defender of the defenceless. So I had to go on your property to try to bring her a drink."
Joshua added, "I am sorry that you didn't like that and wouldn't allow me to help save her life and one day you will have to tell God why. I won't be able to help you then like I tried to help her. I will pray for you every day . . ."
The Chief of the Pinellas Park Police Department is, and has been for a long while now, a woman. Clue in before you comment.
And, of course, you are not "sure" at all of who her friends are.
It is likely that the apology was part of the plea agreement.
No it isn't quite like the Emperor's "new clothes".
The emperors here have no shame.....indeed are declaring that we all should be naked...just like them!
OTOH, we know that Casey Sheehan enlisted despite his mother's wishes, that he stood up for what he believed in, and that his mother is exploiting his death for her own political purposes...unfortunately Casey's not hear to tell his mother to go home and STFU...
IMHO it is entirely possible that this 10 year child believes that Jesus would have trespassed to give Terry some water and that he felt compelled to perform this corporal work of mercy without parental manipulation...knowing how Jesus would have responded to Terry is a no-brainer...even a 10 year old could have figured that one out.
I assure you he wasn't hitchhiking.
You might find this 3/26/05 article from the St. Pete Times interesting. It contains some of the story about Joshua Heldreth's arrest, and it also contains a list of some of the protestors arrested. Look at the list...only one was from Florida, and even he wasn't local.
If Jesus "would have trespassed to give Terry some water," then why didn't He? God has a power which could not have been stopped by an entire regiment of police.
Yeah, evidently, Heldreth was able to evade the Sex Offender registry by moving to North Carolina.
You fail to quote that correctly. Mr. Schiavo's statement was cut off by Mr. King's interruption. (Here's the transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/18/lkl.01.html)
Just like I might not know exactly what my friend would want for lunch, I can still make a decision and not bring liver and onions. Even if someone doesn't know my exact wishes, they can be the best one to know the general parameters of my decision process and be the best to decide for me.
I think what happened is that they never updated the database. If Heldreth had absconded he would be in jail right now.
FDLE lost track of something like 18,000 sex offenders. I ran into a guy with a gps while I was at the grocery one day and he was not on the offender website.
There is an offender that is listed as living across the street from a friend of mine and she said he hasn't been living there in months. Either he absconded or they haven't updated his info in the database. So far we haven't received an answer to that question.
That doesn't jibe with these claims that he was following her wishes. He did what HE wanted. He had her killed. Period.
Oh, he's on the Florida sex offender registry, noted as having been convicted with two counts of rape of a minor (gender not specified) in Ohio. His Florida sex offender registration flyer can be seen here.
ABSOLUTELY!
I don't know, but I don't see how you have any more evidence to back up your position than I do mine. I think you're mistaking cynicism for smarts, and that's always a bad error.
I don't know, but I don't see how you have any more evidence to back up your position than I do mine. I think you're mistaking cynicism for smarts, and that's always a bad error.
Let's see. The kid lives 600 miles away from the hospital yet being only 10 years old, somehow he managed to get there. His father was there encouraging him. Sounds like he was getting help from his parents to me. That's not cynicism, that's just logic.
Apologise! Apologise for what? This child shouldn't be punished he should be treated like a hero. What he did was morally right even though it was Murder sanctioned by the judiciary of the state of Florida.
The Judge that ordered this child to apologise is one sick s.o.b.
Eloquently stated. Why does anyone find it hard to understand?
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