Accused shooter's NY mental health evaluation wouldn't trigger Maine 'yellow flag' law

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/10/27/politics/accused-shooters-
mental-health-yellow-flag-law/

The suspect in the Lewiston mass shootings had a mental health evaluation
this past summer in New York, but that alone would not have triggered a
Maine law restricting his access to guns.

Maine’s “yellow flag” law, enacted in 2020, created a process by which
police can temporarily confiscate guns from someone deemed to be a threat
to themselves or others. The process involves police taking someone into
protective custody, and then getting a medical professional and a judge to
agree that the person poses a threat to either themselves or others.

The question of whether Maine’s yellow flag law could have prevented
Wednesday’s rampage has been raised by politicians, including U.S. Sen.
Susan Collins, in the past two days. Those in charge of the response have
skirted the topic, focusing on the victims and the ongoing manhunt for the
suspect, 40-year-old Robert R. Card II of Bowdoin.

It was unclear Friday whether police in Maine had been asked after Maine’s
law went into effect in July 2020 to respond to complaints of Card being a
threat to himself or others. But the New York events would never have
triggered the law because the suspect was put into protective custody out
of state and was evaluated out of state.

Under Maine’s law, people cannot directly petition the courts in Maine to
confiscate a relative’s firearms. Lack of agreement from a medical
professional prevents police from taking action. If a judge grants the
prohibitions, the person is banned from possessing and buying weapons for
up to a year. A district attorney can request an extension for up to an
additional year.

Card, the suspect in the shootings that killed 18 people and wounded 13
more, spent about two weeks in July getting inpatient psychiatric
treatment in New York, media outlets have reported. The Army reservist was
with his unit at West Point when he began behaving erratically and was
taken by New York State Police to Keller Army Community Hospital, an
official told NBC News.

Maine State Police issued a bulletin on Wednesday saying that Card had
recently been hearing voices and making threats to “shoot up” a National
Guard base in Saco, but it was unclear whether he was in New York when
those concerns came to light.

Card’s sister in law on Thursday told The Daily Beast that Card’s mental
health seemed to deteriorate in the past year, after he began wearing
hearing aids. He seemed to become more paranoid, saying that the hearing
aids enabled him to hear others “bashing” him, Katie Card said.

“This all just happened within the last few months,” she told The Daily
Beast.

Katie Card did not respond Friday to a question from the Bangor Daily News
about whether the family knew if police had been in contact with Card
since July 2020.

Prior to Wednesday’s shooting, Card seems to have generated scant interest
from police or the courts in Maine. He has a 2007 conviction for drunken
driving and a couple of misdemeanor traffic infractions in Penobscot
County from the early 2000s, when he was a student at University of Maine
in Orono.

The only other public court records on file from Sagadahoc County, where
Card lives, were monetary claims filed against Card in 2013 and 2014, and
documents related to his 2007 divorce from his ex-wife.

Any additional documents in the cases could not be obtained because they
are in paper files and the courts were closed Thursday and Friday under a
shelter-in-place order, Barbara Cardone, a spokesperson for Maine’s
judicial system, said. No federal criminal records could be found in Maine
or New York, where Card was held in July for in-patient treatment.

Despite this, several political figures have raised the question of
whether the Maine law failed to stop the suspect from accessing a gun,
including Collins, a Republican who responded to questions at a Thursday
news conference by saying it looked like the law should have kicked in.

“It certainly seems that on the basis of the facts that we have, that the
yellow flag law should have been triggered if in fact the suspect was
hospitalized for two weeks,” she said.

The Maine law is more limited than “red flag” laws in other states, which
allow family members and police to petition courts — without a
recommendation from a medical professional — to confiscate guns from
people believed to pose a danger to themselves or others.

There are no federal red or yellow flag laws. A 2022 law signed by
President Joe Biden included incentives for states to implement laws that
allow for groups to petition for weapons to be removed from people who are
a threat to themselves or other people, NPR reported.

Once a person is notified by police that they are going to have to go
through the process, a district attorney’s office has five days to file
the motion in court, Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Alice
Clifford said. A hearing must be held within 14 days after the motion is
filed, per the law.

Most cases resolve through an agreement before it reaches the hearing,
with a person agreeing to give up their guns for a year, Clifford said.

“These things happen when there’s a pretty dire situation and they see the
writing on the wall,” Clifford said.


--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

[ELON X.]

Trump’s Total Charges Could Result In More Than 700 Years In Prison—Here's
Updated Aug 22, 2023, 03:00pm EDT

Topline

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on 91 federal and state
charges in total after being indicted for the fourth time Monday in Fulton
County, Georgia, facing a range of felony charges that all carry potential
prison sentences that add up to a potential maximum sentence of 717.5
years in prison, though Trump is highly unlikely to face that much time.
Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump prepares to deliver remarks at a Nevada
Republican volunteer ... [+]Getty Images
Key Facts

Manhattan – 136 Years Maximum: Trump was charged with 34 counts of
falsifying business records in the first degree in his first indictment in
Manhattan, stemming from “hush money” payments made during his 2016
campaign, which as a class “E” felony under New York law carries a maximum
four-year prison sentence for each count if convicted.

Trump could face over 100 years in prison if he were convicted of every
charge in that case, but legal experts suggest it’s unlikely he’ll face
any prison time at all in this case as a first-time offender.

PROMOTED

Classified Documents – 450 Years Maximum: Trump faces 40 federal charges
after being indicted for bringing White House documents back to Mar-A-Lago
with him and allegedly trying to obstruct the Justice Department’s
investigation into them, including 32 counts of willful retention of
national security documents, six counts related to obstruction and two
counts for scheme to conceal and making false statements.

That could result in 450 years maximum imprisonment, based on the willful
retention charges each carrying up to 10 years in prison, the obstruction
charges carrying potential 20-year penalties and the false statement
charges carrying potentially five years each.

Federal Election Investigation – 55 Years Maximum: Trump was charged with
four felony counts as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into
his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including conspiracy to defraud
the U.S., obstruction, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and
conspiracy against rights, a 19th century law that criminalizes when two
or more people “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” any
Americans “in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege”
they’re afforded under the Constitution or federal law.

Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential
analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.

By signing up, you accept and agree to our Terms of Service (including the
class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and you acknowledge our
Privacy Statement.

Those charges could result in more than 50 years in prison if Trump were
convicted of all counts, based on maximum sentences of five years for
conspiracy to defraud, 20 years for each obstruction charge and 10 years
for conspiracy against rights.

Fulton County – 76.5 Years Maximum: Trump was indicted on 13 state charges
in Fulton County for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election—part of 41
total counts brought against 19 defendants—including charges for
racketeering (known as RICO charges), solicitation of violation of oath by
a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer,
conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, false statements and
writings, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, filing false
documents and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Trump could spend more than 70 years in prison if he were convicted on all
counts, based on maximum sentences of 20 years for racketeering, three
years for solicitation (three counts), 2.5 years for conspiracy to
impersonate a public officer, 7.5 years for forgery conspiracy (two
counts), five years for false statements (two counts), 2.5 years for
conspiracy to commit false statements (two counts), 10 years for filing
false documents and five years for conspiracy to file false documents.
Contra

While all of the crimes Trump’s been indicted for do carry possible prison
sentences, most do not carry mandatory sentences if convicted and can also
potentially be punishable by a fine. Criminal solicitation and forgery in
Georgia are the only charges against Trump in which the statutes don’t
specify it can be punishable by a fine instead.


What Trump’s actual prison sentences will be, if he’s convicted of any of
the crimes he’s been charged with. Trump is unlikely to receive maximum
prison sentences as a first-time offender, Politico notes, and even if
he’s convicted of multiple crimes, he might be ordered to serve out his
sentences concurrently, meaning he could serve sentences for multiple
counts simultaneously rather than one after the other. Trump could also be
helped out in the documents case by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the
judge overseeing the case who would sentence him if convicted, who Trump
appointed and has been deferential toward him in the past.
What To Watch For

Trump’s trial in Manhattan is scheduled to start on March 25, 2024,
followed by the documents case going to trial on May 20, 2024, though
those dates could be changed. No date has been set yet for Trump’s federal
indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election, though prosecutors
have proposed a trial date of January 2. It’s also still unclear when the
Fulton County case will go to trial, and while District Attorney Fani
Willis suggested prosecutors want the trial to take place within the next
six months, that may be unlikely given the complex nature of the 19-
defendant case.
Chief Critic

Trump has strongly denied all of the charges against him in each
indictment, pleading not guilty to the first three sets of charges and
decrying the Fulton County indictment as a “witch hunt.” “These monsters,
all controlled and coordinated by the DOJ and Radical Left Lunatics, are
Criminalizing Political Speech, a total SHUTDOWN OF DEMOCRACY!” Trump
claimed on Truth Social Tuesday night. (Legal experts have disputed
Trump’s claim that his attempts to overturn the election were First
Amendment-protected speech.)
Surprising Fact

Trump being convicted and sentenced to prison would not in itself stop him
from serving as president if he were reelected in 2024—or from campaigning
for the job—though it would likely present some logistical challenges.
Legal experts cited by Politico said it’s likely any sentences from state
courts would likely be postponed until after his presidential term ends,
and while it’s less clear what would happen in the case of any federal
sentences, Trump could try to pardon himself from those charges. (It’s
still legally uncertain if he could do so.)
Key Background

Trump is the first sitting or former president to be indicted on felony
charges. His indictments were brought over the past several months
following years-long investigations by federal and local prosecutors, with
special counsel Jack Smith being appointed in November to oversee the
Justice Department’s two investigations into the former president. The
charges in Fulton County were brought Monday against 19 defendants,
alleging Trump was part of a broader criminal conspiracy to subvert the
election results. Polling suggests that Trump’s indictments have only
bolstered his standing in the Republican presidential primaries among his
GOP base, though it’s still unclear how his indictments—or by that point,
any convictions—could impact the ex-president in a general election.