Carlton: A father killed, two boys hurt. Is Florida’s stingy mental health spending partly to blame?
Tampa Bay Times
Sue Carlton
June 28, 2018
On a Sunday morning, a father and his two young sons went for a bike ride in the New Tampa suburbs. The boys, 3 and 8, wore bike helmets to keep them safe.
The man driving the Dodge was just five days out of a mental health facility. This time he had been involuntarily committed after he walked into a police station, said some bizarre things and warned a cop he might hurt someone. Sometime that Sunday, he posted wild-eyed, ominous ravings on Instagram. His parents would later say they tried for years to get him the right help.
What happened next is the definition of madness.
Twelve days before he was accused of killing a man and injuring two children, Mikese Morse visited a Tampa police substation and predicted he would hurt someone if he wasn't detained, records show. He was taken into protective custody under Florida's Baker Act. But he was set free a week later. [Tampa Police Department, Times file]
Police say 30-year-old Mikese Morse — once a college athlete and an Olympic hopeful — made a U-turn, crossed a lane of oncoming traffic, drove over the grass onto the bike path, stepped on the gas and hit the family. Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, died and his sons were injured. They will recover, but without their father.
Tampa police Chief Brian Dugan told reporters Morse did this deliberately, purposely, intentionally. The chief also said there was no evidence Morse knew the people he hit — no simmering conflict, no hint of the usual motives of money, anger, jealousy, hate, revenge. "Random," was the word the chief used. "For no apparent reason whatsoever," he said.
A question, then: Did a man die at least in part because of a lack of adequate mental health care for someone who clearly needed it, not only for himself but also to keep the world safe from him?
Did our state — ranked in recent years next to last in spending on mental health — play a part?
read more here
What does Gov. Rick Scott have to say about all this? What do members of our state legislature have to say?
Contemplating suicide, this Marine turned to yoga to save his life
CNN
By Mayra Cuevas
June 29, 2018
"If we had firefights or anything went on that was a high-stress day, I was teaching yoga," he says. "We were in the dirt just doing the practice, and the students were coming. Even these big Special Forces dudes were coming and like, 'Hey, what are you doing over there?' 'I'm doing yoga and meditation.' "
(CNN) Marine Justin Blazejewski rolls out his yoga mat over a dock floating along the banks of the Potomac River. It's a sunny weekday morning inside the DC beltway, where he lives and works as a military contractor.
"I stumbled upon yoga to save my life, basically, and I knew that I found something special," he said. "And it's taking me on a totally different path than I originally planned."
After a quick warmup, Blazejewski folds over himself, the top of his head resting on the creaky boards beneath him. The soles of his feet rise into a bright blue, cloudless sky. He lifts both arms, vertical against his torso, until he's in a full unsupported headstand or niralamba sirsasana, as the pose is called in yoga-speak.
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Former officer to surrender license, plead guilty in assault at Indianapolis VA hospital
The Indy Channel
Jordan Fischer
Jun 29, 2018
In a plea agreement filed in federal court Wednesday, Kaim acknowledges that the victim was already walking out the door of the hospital after being told to leave when Kaim shoved him out of the door and pushed him against an exterior wall of the building. Kaim then caused the victim to fall face-first on the sidewalk, before striking him in the head six-to-seven times.
INDIANAPOLIS -- A former officer with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Police Department has agreed to surrender his law enforcement license as part of a plea agreement over an assault at the Indianapolis VA hospital in April 2017.
Officer Michael Kaim was indicted in January on a civil rights violation and obstruction of justice for allegedly writing a false report about an arrest at the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Memorial Center.
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Fake Marine gave serial killer suspect a home. Now he's accused of bilking man of RV park
Mississippi Clarion Ledger
Jerry Mitchell
Published June 29, 2018
CANYON LAKE, Texas — A fake Marine who gave Mississippi native and convicted killer Felix Vail a home is now accused of using a Christian charity to bilk a man of an RV park.
David Thomason was so close with convicted murderer Felix Vail that he gave him property in Canyon Lake, Texas. And there is one thing he has in common with Vail: each had a wife reported to have drowned in an accident.
(Photo: File photo)
David Thomason portrays himself as a heroic Marine and a generous pastor who aids veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder with his Tree of Light Ministries.
In reality, he is a mail-order minister with no record of serving in the Marines.
A local man here, Bryan Todd Sympson, is now suing Thomason and his wife, saying they tricked him over the past three years into giving their Tree of Light Ministries at least $336,590 in donations, plus an RV park.
It gets stranger...read more here
A community comes together to help Pennsylvania trucker, Army veteran find dog lost at Lake Station truck stop
NWI Times
Dylan Wallace
Jun 29, 2018 Updated 4 hrs ago
It wasn't until a few days ago when they questioned workers at the truck stop that one revealed they saw another truck driver scoop up a dog and take it with him. The employee's description of the dog matched Jade's, so Morris and DiBenedetto are certain it was her.
Gilson is from Pennsylvania and is a U.S. Army veteran who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The distance between his home and Lake Station hasn't stopped him from trying to find his dog. Co-workers give him routes that allow him to pass through Indiana, so he can stop by.
Truck driver Doug Gilson stopped by the TA truck stop in Lake Station on Thursday morning and stared at the empty seat next to him.
"It's tough looking over at that seat, and she's not there," Gilson said.
Just three weeks prior, on June 8, Gilson was driving to Iowa when he made a pit stop at that same truck stop around 1 a.m.
Accompanying him was his service dog, Jade — a female Australian shepherd and companion of Gilson's for 12 years.
read more here
