Although I can’t imagine what he was thinking, it seems that a Florida prosecutor actually brought criminal charges against a woman confined to a wheelchair for driving under the influence — for the crime of using her wheelchair after having a few drinks. The trial judge dismissed the charges. (Link: CrimLaw)
UDPATE: Several readers pointed out the supremely weird passage at the end of the story above:
With his departure from the bench, [Judge] Hyslop will not be around to hear Christensen’s other pending case. She was charged with animal cruelty after she was accused of biting the head off a python last May.
What could that be about, you wonder? Well, this story suggests that the wheelchair-bound defendant above may be a bit less sympathetic than I had first thought:
Cynthia Christensen, 46, rolled down a Spring Hill street in her motorized wheelchair to join a group of neighbors in conversation Sunday afternoon and innocently asked to hold her friend’s pet python. No one expected the request to end with a reptile beheading.
While holding the 11/2-foot python, Christensen blurted out that she was going to bite off its head, authorities said.
When Jennie Smith, the snake’s owner, turned around moments later, she saw the reptile dangling from Christensen’s hand. Its head was missing.
Neither Smith, who bought the python at a Spring Hill pet store for $26, nor her friend Kenneth Foss, 44, saw the decapitation.
However, Smith’s boyfriend, Charles Burge Jr., 23, told authorities he was looking out the window, and the next thing he knew, Christensen had bitten off the snake’s head.
We report, you decide. Thanks to Eric Berlin for the link.
FURTHER UDPATE: Harper’s has an excerpt from the police report in the alleged python beheading. Also worth reading.
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