Man Endangered Family With Gun and Sword is Mandated to Anger Management and Alcoholics Anonymous

This man went ballistic on his family shooting his gun and using a sword. In sentencing he was mandated to anger management meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a mental health evaluation.

Shepherd man admits endangering family with gun, sword

Gazette Staff | Posted: Monday, March 12, 2012 2:38 pm

Anger Management

A 45-year-old Shepherd man pleaded guilty Monday in District Court to a felony charge for shooting a gun and swinging a sword in his home where children were present.

Robert Douglas Herring appeared before Judge G. Todd Baugh and admitted to a single charge of felony criminal endangerment. Herring was allowed to remain free on a posted $30,000 bond while awaiting a sentencing hearing on May 8.
A plea agreement calls for Herring to receive a three-year deferred sentence. Prosecutors will also ask a judge to order Herring to undergo mental health and chemical dependency evaluations and follow all treatment recommendations.
The agreement also seeks an order requiring Herring to participate in Alcoholics Anonymous, complete anger management and parenting classes, write a sincere letter of apology to the victims and seek full-time employment.
Herring was charged for an incident on Jan. 25 at a residence on Bea’s Lane in Shepherd. During a 911 call, dispatchers heard gunshots and the caller said his father, Herring, had fired several times and might have hit his brother.
Seven other people, including four children, were inside the house at the time of the incident.
No one was injured in the gunfire, but witnesses said Herring fired at least four times and grabbed a sword when he ran out of bullets. Herring slashed two walls, a ceiling, a window, drapes and a light fixture with the sword before his wife was able to take the weapon from him.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/shepherd-man-admits-endangering-family-with-gun-sword/article_cba2477c-2644-55e9-9eaf-b2f079c1cfc6.html

Michigan’s Mental Health Courts Depending On Community Based Programs Like AA Meetings

More and more mental health courts are popping up. It is wonderful they are trying to help the mentally ill. Yet the courts should not be mandating Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, where they are often told not to take there meds and make disparaging remarks about the mental health field.AA has no training to deal with paranoid schizophrenics or suicidal people.

Mental Health Court

Michigan’s treatment of mentally ill people has disgraced the state, as hundreds of thousands have gone without treatment and ended up in county jails and state prisons, warehoused at a cost to taxpayers of $35,000 a year each.

It’s a common and tragic story: Mentally ill defendants — often abusing drugs — cycle through the criminal justice system repeatedly for petty offenses until they are slapped with lengthy prison sentences as repeat offenders.

Since 2008, however, eight mental health court pilot programs, now serving nearly 700 people a year, have given hope to mentally ill offenders like Angela DeCant, 35; Henry Smith, 47; and Steven Townsend, 52. Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny and others who preside over the courts have the option of sentencing them to 18 months of intensely supervised probation and treatment.

Working with community-based nonprofits like Detroit Central City Community Mental Health, participants get medications, attend relapse prevention classes and group therapy, meet with psychiatrists, undergo residential treatment, and talk with job and housing specialists to get their lives on track.

The pilot courts work at a fraction of the cost of incarceration. But they will end Sept. 30, when the annual $1.65-million federal grant expires, unless the governor and state Legislature find another way to pay for them.

For starters, Gov. Rick Snyder has put $1 million for the mental health courts in his 2013 budget, but legislators must do even better. With county jails and state prisons becoming Michigan’s largest mental health institutions, this is no time to end a rare success story.

Salvaging lives
Over the last two decades, mental health care in Michigan has eroded, leaving hundreds of thousands without treatment and pushing many of them into county jails and state prisons.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120304/OPINION02/203040478/SALVAGING-LIVES-SAVING-MONEY-Eight-pilot-courts-that-divert-mentally-ill-offenders-from-prison-to-treatment-are-showing-promising-results-It-s-time-to-expand-the-experiment-?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

AA Member Threatens to Shoot Fellow AA Member At Cass City Church

Churches need to ask AA Groups to obtain liability and sexual molestation insurance. Churches are taking on a lot of risk renting to violent felons and sexual predators.
Did AA members tell this man to go off his meds????????????
Be careful what you ask for!

Man sent for psychiatric exam after allegedly pointing gun at A.A. member in Cass City church

By Thomas Gilchrist
Published: Friday, October 07, 2011, 12:12 PM
     

CARO — A man accused of pointing a loaded revolver at another man at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting inside a Cass City Church will be examined to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

John R. Dillon, 74, of Tuscola County’s Almer Township faces 10 criminal charges in connection with the Sept. 5 incident at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 6820 Main, in Cass City.

Dillon “put a gun in someone’s face and threatened to shoot him,” said Trooper Ruth Osborne of the Michigan State Police post at Caro.

Osborne alleges Dillon also pointed the gun at a man’s back before handing over the weapon to one of the A.A. group members.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the alleged victim was the same person in both incidents. Osborne said she didn’t know the motive for the alleged crimes. She said Cass City Police Department Officer Bill Hartzell had taken Dillon into custody when she arrived to assist at the scene.

Tuscola County District Judge Kim David Glaspie, on Sept. 19, ordered Dillon to undergo psychiatric examination to determine if he is mentally competent and criminally responsible.

No date has been set for a hearing on the evidence against Dillon, who is charged with two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and if convicted of either charge, would face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

He also is charged with four counts of possessing a firearm while committing a felony, a charge that carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison that must be served prior to any other prison time ordered for other convictions.

Dillon also is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a controlled substance.

The Saginaw News could not reach Dillon’s lawyer, Caro attorney Timothy M. Turkelson, for comment.

Tuscola County Magistrate Joseph Van Auken set a $100,000 cash bond for Dillon, who hasn’t posted bond and remains in custody.