Guy is sitting in his apartment. Guy hears woman screaming for help from upstairs. Guy looks around, grabs an antique sword, runs upstairs, kicks open the door …
Guy finds himself looking at another guy watching a pr0n DVD.
Worse yet, police seized his sword – a family heirloom – carted him to jail and referred the case to a prosecutor who charged Van Iveren with three criminal counts.
[…] According to the criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning, damaging the frame and lock in the process. “Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the 39-inch sword at the neighbor, according to the complaint. “Where is she?”
The neighbor told police that Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he’d heard a woman being raped. With the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone, according to the complaint.
Van Iveren said it wasn’t nearly that dramatic. “I walked in the front room and looked around,” he said. “When I saw there was no woman, I left.
“I went downstairs and when I looked out the window, I saw the police had come, so I went out to tell them what happened.”
Van Iveren insisted that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword. “I had the sword extended,” he said. “But that was all.”
Okay, I have little doubt he was probably a bit — vigorous in his sword extension. But, come on — the guy has no phone. Should he have just done a Kitty Genovese? He should get, at most, a talking to.
For his effort, Van Iveren was charged with criminal trespass while using a dangerous weapon, criminal damage to property while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon, all criminal misdemeanors that carry a maximum total penalty of 33 months in jail.
I guess we don’t need heroes any more.
(via BoingBoing)
Shame on any prosecutor for taking this case and going forward with it.
Well, if prosecutors had any shame, they’d pass on a lot more of their prosecutions.
It makes you wonder what kind of pr0n the neighbor was watching that included a woman screaming for help repeatedly at the top of her lungs, sounding urgent enough for the guy to believe she was being raped.
Shouldn’t the good guy be protected under “Good Samaritan” statutes?
One would think. The police get twitchy about swords, though (note all the “with a dangerous weapon” provisos in the charges). I actually wonder if he’d had a hand gun whether charges would have been filed.