Belton,
TX – The public will get a second look at the police dashcam video
prosecutors used to convict a veteran U.S. Army non-commissioned
officer for carrying a rifle in public.
Asked
when the video, which has been withheld through a gag order by a
visiting County Court at Law Judge, will be released, Sgt. Grisham
said, “Tomorrow. It will be released through the Open Carry
Texas/YouTube channel.
M/Sgt.
C.J. Grisham defiantly told court officials he will not apply for
probation in his sentence for interfering with a public official.
In
order to receive a suspended sentence, a convicted offender must go
through a battery of tests, make application, and submit to
evaluation by the Adult Supervision and Correction Department, then
adhere to certain terms and conditions of probation during the term
of suspended sentence.
When
asked, Sgt. Grisham replied, “I refused probation. I don't want it.
If I did some false crime, I'll do false time.”
The
Class B Misdemeanor for which he has been convicted by a jury carries
a maximum sentence of a $2,000 fine and 6 months in jail, or both.
Temple Police arrested him March 16 as he walked down a rural road
near the Temple Airport, where relatives in his extended family own
farm properties.
He
told supporters and newsmen that he was following up on a series of
encounters with methamphetamine cooks who pilfer the anhydrous
ammonia gas used to fertilize and prepare seed bed for row crops at
that time of year. “I and another guy were involved in a high speed
auto chase,” he said in a previous interview, while trying to catch
an ammonia thief.
The
“meth cooks” use it to prepare “Nazi speed,” an especially
potent and extremely poisonous form of the drug devised during the
closing days of World War II, when the German Army was bereft of all
forms of supplies, especially food for the troops, clothing was in
short supply, and severely diminished, exhausted rankers were
expected to fight for extended hours over days and weeks and months,
as they fell back, malnourished and nearly naked before rapidly
advancing Allied troops and armor from the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The
drug is prepared in pyrex dishes placed in ice chests using a cold
process, without condensation or the use of such basic supplies as
phenyl acetic acid, which is heavily regulated by the DEA, and using
lithium from batteries, match heads for red phosphorus, and muriatic
acid used to clean swimming pools. Addicts usually lose their teeth
within two years, and are dead within five.
He
previously appeared before the City Council to ask that they repeal
unconstitutional local ordinances disallowing open carry of firearms
that were passed by local governments in reaction to the passage of a
Concealed Carry Handgun License law enacted by the state legislature
in the late 90's. His request fell on deaf ears.
When
he and his son stepped out for a 10-mile hike that took them through
the neighborhood, a woman who works for a social service agency
thought the appearance of a man and a youngster walking armed with a
rifle looked “odd,” and phoned the Temple police to voice her
“alarm.”
The
video made by the police dashcam depicts Temple Police Department
Officer Steve Ermis jamming the muzzle of an automatic pistol into
the back of the Sergeant's neck, bending him over the hood of a
patrol car, then jabbing him in the ribs with the pistol while he
takes control of the rifle and disarms him.
Jurors
convicted him for interfering with the policeman when they made a
finding that he “substantially, intentionally, unreasonably, and
recklessly” failed to exercise the type of ordinary caution or
restraint a person would ordinarily exercise. The finding was in
accordance with a jury instruction prepared by prosecutors and
instructed by the judge.
Viewers,
many of whom feel the conviction represents a severe stricture on the
right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the U.S. and Texas
Constitutions, will be able to compare the officer's testimony with
what they see on the dashcam and make up their own minds.
-
The Legendary
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