Jon Stinchcomb, ReporterPORT CLINTON – The man subdued by police while brandishing a knife during an incident caught on security camera footage in August will spend several more months in jail after receiving credit for time served.
Judge Bruce Winters, of Ottawa County Common Pleas Court, sentenced Weinheimer to 180 days for the misdemeanor and a year in prison for the felony, which are to be imposed concurrently. NA Daytona and AA Daytona meetings have dangerous felons. Beware!
Weinheimer was also given credit for 233 days served since the offense occurred, leaving just over four months of prison remaining on the sentence.
Weinheimer addressed the court during his sentencing hearing on Thursday and apologized for the incident.
“I just want to say, I’m sorry for wasting the court’s time and I’m sorry to the police officers and everybody for what I did during my drinking,” he said.
He and his defense attorney, Howard Whitcomb, asked the court to consider outpatient care because of a severe mental health condition Weinheimer has been diagnosed with and treated for in the past, as well as an addiction to alcohol.
“Continuing with (Alcoholics Anonymous), I know I can do it. I really do,” Weinheimer said.
“You were fortunate enough to have met up with an officer who had a taser,” Winters said. “My prediction would be, if there hadn’t been a taser there, a firearm would have been used to stop you from approaching the officers with the knife.”
Winters said he understands the mental health issue and the addiction are both severe in this case, referred to as co-occurring disorders.
“The two of them together really make things difficult for you, but then again, you make things a bit difficult for yourself,” the judge said.
Winters noted, based on the pre-sentence report, there does not seem to be consistent way to ensure Weinheimer will take his prescribed medication, and said he has discussed potential treatments with mental health professionals, but was still “at a loss” in this case.
“I struggle with the fact that, if you’ve got mental health issues, prison is not the place for you,” Winters said. “You need mental health assistance in some way, but I’m just not seeing that assistance available. I’m not convinced that all of your actions can be written off to mental health problems. You do some choosing in this, too.”
Winters recommended Weinheimer take advantage of any available help, such as substance abuse treatment, while in prison.
Mother explains indicted son’s bizarre behavior
Jon Stinchcomb, Reporter 7:21 p.m. EDT August 25, 2015
PORT CLINTON – The mother of Bradley Weinheimer, the man indicted last week on several charges related to an altercation earlier this month where he was subdued by police while armed with a knife, said she found out about the incident after the video was posted to Facebook.
Joanne Jannke, Weinheimer’s mother, lives in Watertown, Wisconsin but grew up in Port Clinton, where she is originally from and where her son, Bradley, resides.
Jannke said she wants to the public to know the background behind her son before they judge him. She said that Weinheimer has been diagnosed with mental illness and that doctors consider him developmentally disabled.
Jannke said he has been in and out of the psychiatric ward in the past couple of months. She said the loss of her other son, Weinheimer’s brother, has been particularly hard for him to accept.
“I have two children that have mental illness, schizophrenia,” Jannke said. “I lost one of my sons last year to suicide.”
She wanted to explain so the public knew what was going through his head, she said, and the addition of alcohol to that illness makes it even worse.
“They’re going to kill their pain if they’re suffering inside their own minds,” she said. “This is very hard for me as a parent to see my second oldest child go through this and to watch the video.”
Jannke noted that the video showed the knife Weinheimer had was sheathed as he walked out the door, and with the video being evidence, she felt the police department should not have posted it.
“Why would that have been something that they’re so proud of to do to a mentally ill, disabled person, knowing that he’s mentally ill and disabled,” she asked. “It’s very hard to hear the public to say, ‘Oh, they did a good job.’ Sure you did, but you don’t know the story behind this child.”
Jannke said that her son would have hurt himself before hurting any of the officers or anyone else and that they were aware of his background.
Weinheimer was previously incarcerated for an incident in 2011 after jumping in the Portage River and getting into an altercation. Records indicate that his jail sentence was reduced on multiple occasions for good behavior.
Jannke described her son as a good person when he is taking medication correctly, but she said it is sad that he had to commit a crime as the only way to get help.
“With no community help or no county help … why isn’t there somebody on call to help these people?” she asked. “He’s done anything he could to get help.”
She said it is sad there is not more mental health awareness in the city. She said Weinheimer has been picked up drunk in the past, but he was merely left to “dry out a little” and released back into society.
She said that she doesn’t view the recent incident as “heroic,” that no one was there to help with his condition and that they didn’t care about his mental health.
“I just want the public to know these things before they judge my child,” Jannke said, “because Port Clinton is where I grew up and I thought it was a great place to grow up.”
jstinchcom@gannett.com
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Twitter: @JonDBN
http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/story/news/local/2015/08/25/mother-explains-indicted-sons-bizarre-behavior/32361847/
So sad that the mentally ill are sent to AA and NA meetings. Then AA tells these people not to take their meds and then sometimes commit suicide. I wonder if this Mom’s other son went to AA as well?