President Clinton has secret service jail young couple for saying "F***
Francis A. Ney, Jr.
In article <wd6cmuDu...@netcom.com> wd6...@netcom.com writes:
> Someone in the Chicago area should be able to find the story in the
> back-issues somewhere, I looked on the Web but didn't find anything
> in a quick search.
Here is the story as I have it:
By Ruth Larson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
7/13/96
Posted under Fair Use
.....from public unrestricted web page site http://www.washtimes.com/
Federal officials have ordered the Chicago woman arrested
after "insulting" President Clinton during his recent visit to a
food festival there to submit evidence for a grand jury
investigation into whether she threatened the president. Patricia
Mendoza has been subpoenaed to appear tomorrow at the U.S. Secret
Service's Chicago offices to be fingerprinted and photographed,
as well as to provide handwriting samples, according to William
Reynolds, one of her attorneys.To date, no federal charges have
been brought against the Westchester, Ill., woman, he said.
Threatening the president is a felony.
Mrs. Mendoza and her husband, Glenn, are scheduled to appear
in state misdemeanor court on Aug. 27 on disorderly conduct
charges. "I'm told by the Secret Service and the U.S. attorney
that whenever there's a supposed threat to the president, an
investigation has to be done," Mr. Reynolds said. "I would
imagine the Secret Service will interview witnesses who were
there when the statements were made and conduct a thorough
investigation. "They're asking for pretty standard things:
handwriting, photos, fingerprints, but no testimony."
On July 2, Mr. Clinton made an impromptu stop at the Taste of
Chicago festival, where he shook hands with the crowd and sampled
food from several booths. Mrs. Mendoza, upset over the June 25
bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 servicemen, told the
president, "You suck, and those boys died," according to her
husband, who spent 4(integral) years in the Navy and was on a
ship off the Lebanese coast when the 1983 bombing of the U.S.
Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 Marines. Mr. Clinton looked
at her for a moment, then motioned to an assistant before moving
down the line, Mr. Mendoza said. After the president left, Secret
Service agents converged on Mrs. Mendoza, accusing her of
threatening the president. At that point, Mr. Mendoza told his
wife: "Trish, don't say anything. We need a lawyer," he said. An
officer told him to shut up and he responded, "Screw you. I have
a right to tell my wife to get a lawyer when she's getting
interrogated by the Secret Service," Mr.Mendoza said. Chicago
Police Department spokesman Patrick Camden said, "They [Secret
Service agents] talked with Mrs. Mendoza long after the president
had left. Then the Chicago police stepped in as the Mendozas
became louder and more obnoxious."
Mr. Mendoza acknowledged that when Secret Service agents
accused his wife of threatening the president's life, "I was
screaming at the top of my lungs. Granted, I was angry, scared,
upset, and if that's disorderly, I guess so."
Chicago police arrested them and held them for 12 hours
before releasing them without bond at 4 a.m. Asked whether such
a detention was normal procedure for individuals brought in on
misdemeanor charges, Mr. Camden said, "Yes, it is."
The U.S. Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department
differ on several key points in their accounts of the incident.
Their versions, in turn, are at odds with the Mendoza's
statements. Ed Vrdolyak, a former Chicago alderman and attorney
for the Mendozas, said, "I would expect all law enforcement
branches, whoever they are, to be honest, and to tell the same
story. And they're not doing that, are they?"
As of Tuesday, for instance, the Chicago Police Department
did not know the Secret Service was involved, Mr. Camden said,
even though a Secret Service spokesman said the Chicago office
had an "ongoing investigation." Some light may be shed on the
matter through press-pool video footage of the incident. Mr.
Vrdol yak said he is attempting to obtain a copy of the tape, as
is The Washington Times. The audio portion of the tape reportedly
barely picks up Mrs. Mendoza's remarks to the president, and his
reaction.
Particularly at issue is just what Mrs. Mendoza said to the
president as he shook her hand. The Mendozas maintain she said,
"You suck, and those boys died." Chicago police spokesman Patrick
Camden said Mrs. Mendoza had hinted at "blowing up the
president." "She said something to the effect that 'He [Mr.
Clinton] should have been blown up instead of the 19
servicemen.'" But Secret Service spokesman Arnette Heintze
rejects both versions. "A direct threat was made, but I'm not
going to elaborate."
Mr. Heintze explained the Secret Service would never
intervene if someone called the President a "jerk" or expressed
political or policy differences with the President."It
specifically deals with a threatening statement that was made to
the president. ...'You suck' does not constitute a threat to the
president," he said.
Rep. Sonny Bono, California Republican and member of the
House Judiciary Committee, told The Washington Times, "The Secret
Service has certainly been thin on their response" to questions.
"If they gave the police the nod to go ahead and arrest them,
that's unforgivable." He said he intends to follow up on the
matter.
Mr. Vrdolyak declined to comment on precisely what Mrs.
Mendoza may have said to the president or the Secret Service,
citing attorney-client privilege. But he did deny that she
threatened the president. "My clients should never have been
arrested. The Secret Service knew there was no threat, or they
would have arrested them." Mr. Vrdolyak, who also co-hosts a
Chicago talk radio show, was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as
saying, "I tell Clinton he sucks every day, in so many words.
What happened here is that he got embarrassed and so my clients
were arrested."
The Mendozas insist that Mrs. Mendoza said nothing to
threaten the president.
---
Frank Ney WV/EMT-B VA/EMT-A N4ZHG LPWV NRA(L) GOA CCRKBA JPFO
Sponsor, BATF Abuse page http://www.access.digex.net/~croaker/batfabus.html
West Virginia Coordinator, Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus
- --
"Politically speaking, we're compelled by circumstances to resign ourselves
to the unpleasant fact that 1996 isn't going to be a very good year for the
cause of individual liberty. Not with the Democratic Fascist Party being led
by a terrorist mass-murderer and his crooked wife, Lady Macbeth, the Socialist
Republican Party opting to run a retarded zombie for President, and the
Drool-chinned Stumblebum Party (oops, make that 'we' Libertarians) giving a
spastic nod and a belch to an electoral cross between Werner 'EST' Erhard and
Immanuel Velikovsky." - L. Neil Smith