Jury finds Gulf War vet guilty in BB gun shooting

Express-Times (western New Jersey/eastern Pennsylvania) ^ | 04/24/02 | TOM QUIGLEY

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

What a frigging joke.

[dcwusmc]

SOME of the alleged 2A crowd. I would bet that there'd be a good number of folks who would cheer him on and then start their OWN action... IF he was "clean" enough...

[Eagle Eye]

IF he was "clean" enough

That's part fo the problem. By the time that the squeaky cleans are getting involved, it's way too late, the ftroops have the arrogance to do anything they please and no one to stop them.

[gumbo]

I emailed the reporter too with a few questions yesterday. Haven't heard back, but will post reply if I do.

[dcwusmc]

That's a good point... for me, it would not be necessary to be squeaky, just modestly clean, where the FedGov lies could be shown fairly quickly, as they can in many cases... It seems that our "masters" are beyond caring that they are being exposed in their rampages... that institutional arrogance of theirs, it is!

[dcwusmc]

Hey, Neil, care to comment???

[Eagle Eye]

A case in point is with Griffin and his .50 kits. There was immediate outrage until someone pointed out that he had a conviction. Then large numbers of his 'supporters' did their crawdad impressions.

[PsyOp]

Response from article's author to the e-mail I sent.

Hi [PsyOp],

Thanks for sending those comments. I thought this was an interesting case and might engender some public debate. Even the prosecutor in the case described it as a landmark case.

I try to keep my own opinions out of a story and I try not to comment publicly about anything I've written. But I enjoyed reading the comments you forwarded.

I'll keep an eye on this story and report any other developments.

You can find a listing for the defense attorney, Paul Aaroe. He has offices in Easton, Pa. and Belvidere, N.J.

Take care

Tom Quigley

[gumbo]

Thanks for posting the Quigley email. I'd emailed a few questions to him but didn't get a response. I did get a reply from Sgt. Mott's attorney, Mr. Aaroe, however:

Thanks for the interest. Juries make mistakes. I think clearly this should not have occurred. Jury did not know what punishment would be, so maybe they thought he would be getting probation. We had what I thought was a good jury, men and women, even a fish and game officer who would have known that the bb gun could not have fired the way they said it did. Rate, distance, effect, etc. Really sucks for Mott, 'cause I really believe he never even shot at them.

Just an aside. The kids made up the fact that they were hit so that Mr. Mott would be afraid to pursue their prosecution. They were actually fooled by him into thinking that he was shooting at them, and figured this would make him back off his having called the police (who said they couldn't help on mischeif night, too much going on!) He really fired a rivet gun at them (Noise only) to scare them away. Best defense = make yourself a victim and they will not pursue you!!! It worked for these kids.....big fallout for Mr. Mott, however.

I sent a reply asking about an appeal and if there is a defense fund.

[gumbo]

PsyOp, Marine Inspector:

You have FReepmail regarding an email I received about this case.

[DugwayDuke]

If this were truely the case, then every male in my junior high school would have been in prison. We used to have epic battles using BB guns.

[gumbo]

Yes. I'm not shocked that such a thing would happen in New Jersey, which after all just elected Democrat Jim McGreevey -- whose campaign relied on heavy use of scare ads about "assault weapons."

But I am shocked that a jury of citizens of Warren County (which is a fairly conservative area in rural western NJ) would convict!

Sgt. Mott's lawyer believes the jury did not understand the extremely harsh penalty (minimum three years in prison) for this conviction. They apparently thought he would just get probation.

[gumbo]

Anyone who want to try to help Sgt. Mott, please use your powers of persuasion! Veterans could be most effective.

Here are some suggested sites to email:

letters to the editor:

Express-Times, Joe Owens, Editor, 610-258-7171 ext. 3535, jowens@express-times.com

NJ State Representatives, 23rd District (includes Phillipsburg, Belivdere, Sgt. Mott's district):

Assemblyman Michael J. Doherty (R), AsmDoherty@njleg.org

Assemblywoman Connie Myers (R), AswMyers@njleg.org

Senator Leonard Lance (R), SenLance@njleg.org

I don't recommend contacting Governor McGreevey (D), nor Senators Torricelli or Corzine (both big 'D's). I doubt they'd want to help, and may actually hurt.