A 67 year old guy was visiting Yellowstone last September. Due to road construction, traffic was backed up 45 minutes. He got out of the line and drove around the stopped cars and told the flaggers he had a medical condition and really needed to use a bathroom and they told him to get back in line and wait. He blew them off and continued to drive forward. One of the flaggers stood there with his sign and was pushed backward by the vehicle, but the vehicle was going slowly enough that he was not hurt, but pushed out of the way.
Park Rangers had arrived and pulled him over, but by then he had urinated in his pants. He told law enforcement he had a medical condition and was transported to a hospital later that day. He was originally charged with three misdemeanors for failure to comply with traffic control devices.
So far everything sounds reasonable to me. But then Crazy got involved.
The prosecutor dropped those charges and charged him with a federal charge of 18 U.S.C. for when a person assaults a federal employee with a dangerous weapon. He argued that the vehicle was a dangerous weapon and the construction workers were federal employees.
So now he faces up to 20yrs in prison and a 250k fine. His trial is set for Aug 7th.
He should definitely face some type of punishment but not 20yrs and a 250k fine. In this incident, no one was actually hurt. People get less than 20 yrs for actually killing someone.
I too suffer from frequent urination. It is a curse that I have to live with. Everything I do has to have some kind of an offramp to allow for frequent bathroom breaks.
In that situation, I would have simply exited my vehicle and peed on the side of the road. It wouldn’t be the first time I had to do that. I’m betting no one would have cared.
If I’m stupid enough to turn facing cars with small children while taking a leak, then I would expect that might happen.
On more than a few occasions, I’ve pulled over and walked away from the road to find a private place to take a leak. That is what most having my condition would do.
Had the person in this story chosen to do that, instead of running down a flagman, there would be no story to tell.
If there was a long line of cars, the park ranger can’t be everywhere at once. I’ve had this condition for all of my life. I found that where there is a will, there is a way.
I dont mind the Park Ranger charging him with three misdemeanors. Well deserved. It does bother me that a prosecutor wants to charge him with a felony that was meant for someone attempting to beat or seriously hurt federal employees. That didnt happen here. No one was hurt. Leave it at the three misdemeanors
Technically you can get charged with statutory rape if you piss behind a tree and some mom with her kid is nearby and claim they saw you, even if they didn’t.
