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Pastimes : Laughter is the Best Medicine - Tell us a joke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Freeman who wrote (13550)	2/23/2000 10:01:00 PM
From: eWhartHog	Respond to of 62559

Sometimes you just want to cry... augustachronicle.com JUDGE IMPRISONS QUADRIPLEGIC MAN By Sandy Hodson Staff Writer Louis E. Covar has been in a wheelchair for 35 years, unable to do more than raise his shoulders. On Thursday, he began a seven-year prison sentence. His crime: smoking marijuana. Cost to taxpayers to keep him behind bars: $258.33 a day and $660,000 during seven years. ``If I had another alternative, I would do it,' Mr. Covar, 51, said Thursday at his probation revocation hearing in Richmond County Superior Court. He has tried many different drugs during the past three decades to ease painful muscle spasms he has suffered since July 4, 1967, when he broke his neck. His doctors continued to prescribe narcotics, the latest of which was 40 milligrams of Valium a day, he said. ``I don't know where I am half the time I'm taking that,' Mr. Covar said. Smoking marijuana eases the pain but leaves his mind clear so he can at least communicate, he said. ``I'm already in prison in my body, and they want to put me to sleep all the time,' Mr. Covar said of doctors. When Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet sentenced Mr. Covar last March to seven years of probation for the felony offense of marijuana possession, he scolded the quadriplegic. ``I'm not telling you to violate the law, but keep it to yourself. Don't get others involved,' Judge Overstreet said March 26. Mr. Covar had two previous marijuana convictions -- one for possession and one for sale. ``I was keeping it to myself,' Mr. Covar said earlier this week. Richmond County sheriff's Investigator Dale Pittard and five other armed officers entered Mr. Covar's Fernwood Circle home Jan. 25 with a search warrant. They found 36 grams of marijuana, the investigator said. Officers had received anonymous complaints on the drug hot line, and they saw people entering and leaving Mr. Covar's home; they stopped some visitors and found marijuana, Investigator Pittard said. Asked by defense attorney Hugh Hadden how many people were stopped and searched in the past year that drug agents have kept Mr. Covar's home under surveillance, Investigator Pittard didn't have an answer. He couldn't say how many people were stopped and searched when no drugs were found. Nor could he name anyone charged with drug offenses after leaving Mr. Covar's home. Mr. Covar's probation officer, Kathy West, said Thursday that Mr. Covar had been reporting and paying off the $1,000 fine that Judge Overstreet imposed last year. The probation violation was based solely on his January arrest. Mr. Hadden argued Mr. Covar has kept to himself, as the judge suggested last year. Mr. Covar is caught between treating a painful condition with legal narcotics that rob him of mental clarity and smoking the illegal substance, Mr. Hadden said. Assistant District Attorney Jason Troiano argued that Mr. Covar admitted having the marijuana. Judge Overstreet revoked all seven years of probation, which sent Mr. Covar to a cell Thursday at the Richmond County jail. It will cost taxpayers $258.33 a day to keep Mr. Covar behind bars, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. That's $94,290.45 a year and, unless he is paroled early, more than $660,000 for seven years. A typical prisoner costs taxpayers $47.63 per day.

To: John Freeman who wrote (13550)	2/25/2000 11:38:00 AM
From: Frank Buck	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 62559

Supposedly this situation is claimed to have been founded in reality and reported by a radio station... having originally cited it from a Michigan news article. Sorry I am at a loss for which station and paper. I have a few technical problems with this story... and believe it may be majorly embellished. Example... most duck hunters worth their salt would never, never use #8 shot. As a matter of fact waterfowl hunting in the U.S. requires use of non-toxic steel or bismuth shot charges. #8 suggests lead (plumbum)shot being employed, which is about as potent on duck feathers as a Navy bean being blown through a McDonalds straw. As far as I know there is no #8 steel or bismuth shot. Toxic lead #8 shot is .09 inches in diameter and there are 410 pellets to an oz. of lead. Therefore the story has a major hole in it. A shotshell containing #8 shot charge would certainly provide sufficient coverage and density on a dog enough to blind it. Don't forget the dog is reputed to be running directly toward the shooters. As such don't you think the dog would have dropped the dynamite after being shot directly in the puss? Secondly... duck hunting can occur at times in northern states (like Michigan) at times when the water ways are freezing... but seldom coincide at times when the ice is sufficient to hold the weight of a vehicle. I would say that this part of the story is sufficient enough to make me question the integrity of the entire story as being entirely truthful.