If a 4-year sentence for sending some harassing postcards sounds overly harsh, consider the case of Frank Abbott Sweeney. The 76-year-old Boise, Idaho, man was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison Friday after pleading guilty to six counts of stalking, and the Statesman reports it all began with a parked car. An unnamed woman apparently spoke with Sweeney about taking a handicapped spot at a post office without having displayed a handicapped tag. Prosecutors say Sweeney retaliated by hiring a private investigator to track down the woman’s contact info. Over the next three years he then sent her a slew of postcards, managing to track her down even when she moved and started using a PO Box.
The postcards featured racist and sexual language and were signed “Carson Wells,” the hit man in the film No Country for Old Men. And hers wasn’t the only mailbox on the receiving end of Sweeney’s effort. Prosecutors say he signed other postcards in the woman’s name and sent them to the Idaho Black History Museum (that one featured slurs and led to the FBI getting involved) and incarcerated murderers, who then sent the woman replies.
Lesson Learned: MYOB.
at first it sounded like he got over-sentenced. But then when you read about how far he went in stalking her? C’mon man! That’s Industrial-level stalking.
Did the court consider his illiteracy?
Sweeney’s criminal history is lengthy and dates back to age 18. He has six prior felony convictions, three of which were federal crimes, according to the prosecution. Prior convictions include attempted homicide, robbery and weapons charges. In the 1990s, Sweeney was convicted for shooting a police officer in New Jersey with a machine gun.
Under sentenced …Dude should have never walked among Us.
@Odin 2013, MYOB. Unless it is apparent that a situation is immediately not safe, I agree. But do so by calling for a cop, or a security person, if possible. Mentally unstable persons actually kill people for revenge, and can be let off in court because of that. It is personally safer to not offend anyone by word or action when it is not necessary. One exception perhaps is when a child’s safety is at risk and a parent needs to be made aware of the situation. ( As in possibly a tot falling out of a grocery store cart while the parent’s back is turned.)
He’da got less time if he’da killed her.
He could still get off if he’d change his name to Clinton (FBI wouldn’t find any “intent”) or identify as a faggot negro moslem trans-sexual.
izlamo delenda est …
@tRuth: Agreed, there are exceptions. MYOB in the sense that one never knows who they are dealing with; too, what’s it to her if someone parked in the wrong place…she’s not a meter-maid.
Everyone in a neighborhood saw very young kids riding ATV’s like bats out of hell and decided to mind their own business. One day an ATV flips with three young girls and one of them breaks her neck crippling her. She’ll live the rest of her life crippled because everyone minded their own business. This happened in my neighborhood. MYOB my ass!