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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ ... 5-15-33-14

CINCINNATI (AP) -- A 71-year-old Cincinnati preacher convicted of waving a gun and threatening another driver won't be going to jail. A Hamilton County judge on Thursday sentenced Thomas Howell to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service on his conviction for aggravated menacing.

Howell can't possess any weapons while on probation and must give up his concealed weapon permit.

The judge said most gun threat cases lead to jail but Howell would be spared because the minister has prostate cancer and glaucoma.

Howell was driving to First Commandment Church of the Living God in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood in June when another driver cut him off. The cars chased each other, and the other motorist said Howell threatened to shoot her and called her names.

Wow! Someone needs anger management classes :)

Thanks buddy! Way to make us look good.

When I see someone that age who goes off his rocker, I think Alzheimer's or some other brain disease. People in the early stages of Alzheimer's frequently become paranoid and lose their temper.

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:When I see someone that age who goes off his rocker, I think Alzheimer's or some other brain disease. People in the early stages of Alzheimer's frequently become paranoid and lose their temper.

- Jim

That is so true, and exactly what I thought.

My grandparents are both gone now, but I remember well when grandma just flipped out one day and decided that grandpa needed killing. They were both in their 90's. There were probably other warning signs, but that was the most dramatic.

One day my grandfather threatened to kill my father over the way my father maintained the lawn. Back in those days, that was all it took to be committed to a mental institution for nearly the rest of his life.

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:One day my grandfather threatened to kill my father over the way my father maintained the lawn. Back in those days, that was all it took to be committed to a mental institution for nearly the rest of his life.

- Jim

Its a nationwide issue. I've never gotten that whole lawn thing, but I read about it all the time.

Yeah, I think I have mentioned this before in this forum: A cranky old man who lived near us in Illinois used to yell at kids who walked on his lawn (unfenced, so no obvious legal violation). Of course, the kids did it more often to egg him on. One day he shot one. IIRC it was non-fatal, but he probably was confined to a mental ward until he was too old and feeble to do any further harm.

- Jim

Wow. I didn't realize this aspect of Alzheimers (sp?)! That's got to be difficult to deal with. I can't imagine having to deal with an elderly parent (or grandparent) becoming suddenly violent.

My grandmother was content to merely forget who we were.

Yeah, I saw an excellent documentary on PBS where the director followed the progression of a relative's Alzheimer's disease (not the only thing I've seen or read, but very graphic).

The paranoia comes from forgetting and losing things and thinking that they were stolen, and also from forgetting who people are and wondering why strangers are in your house.

The prefrontal lobes of the brain, which control moral and ethical judgment, are among the first to go.

In this documentary, the patient was not physically violent, but she was verbally abusive. She shouted obscenities and racial epithets at her caretakers (she was white and some of them were black) and pretty much everyone else.

- Jim