[lit-ideas] Homeland Security
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 15:42:02 EDT
Thank God for the Patriot Act ......
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/chain_saw_border;_ylt=A86.I2BwSadCvtoAuw8DW7oF;_yl
u=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl_
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/chain_saw_border;_ylt=A86.I2BwSadCvtoAuw8DW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)
Man With Chain Saw, Sword Is Let Into U.S.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 37 minutes ago
On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at
Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles
and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents
confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the
United States.
The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of
Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician
named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a
pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed
to death in a bedroom.
Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence
between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in
Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and
brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an
extradition hearing next month.
At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man
toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?
Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the
Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S.
citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.
Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released.
During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method"
to
check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to
re-enter the country.
"Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason
to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by
laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."
Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a
bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have
a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's
blood or rust or red paint."
Sgt. Gary Cameron of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would not comment on
whether it was, in fact, blood on the chain saw.
On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to
be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton's
son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August.
Mowat told police Despres had been bothering his father-in-law for the past
month. When Mowat confronted him, Despres allegedly pulled a knife, pointed it
at Mowat's chest and said he was "going to get you all."
Police believe the dispute between the neighbors boiled over in the
early-morning hours of April 24, when Despres allegedly broke into Fulton's
home and
stabbed to death the musician and 70-year-old Veronica Decarie.
Fulton's daughter found her father's body two days later. His car was later
found in a gravel pit on a highway leading to the U.S. border. Despres
hitchhiked to the border crossing.
After the bodies were found on the afternoon of April 26, police set up
roadblocks and sent out a bulletin that identified Despres as a "person of
interest" in the slayings, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The bulletin caught the eye of a Quincy police dispatcher because it gave the
suspect's Massachusetts driver's license number, missing a character. The
dispatcher plugged in numbers and letters until she found a last known address
for Despres in Mattapoisett. She alerted police in that town, and an officer
quickly spotted Despres.
In state court the next day, Despres told a judge that he is affiliated with
NASA and was on his way to a Marine Corps base in Kansas at the time of his
arrest.
After the case was transferred to federal court, Despres' attorney, Michael
Andrews, questioned whether his client is mentally competent.
Fulton's friends in Minto, a village of 2,700 people, told the New Brunswick
Telegraph-Journal that he was a popular musician, a guitarist known as the
"Chet Atkins of Minto" and a 2001 inductee in the Minto Country Music Wall of
Fame.
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