Readers, I apologize, I am so behind. I especially apologize to all who are sending me great story ideas. There are dozens and dozens of them that I could post, but not enough hours in the day. This morning I spent way too much time telling the story of my attendance at a Trump rally, here, so am going to try really hard now to post a lot of my refugee backlog quickly (Ha! famous last words).
Since we have been mentioning the Dakotas recently (South Dakota, here) this story about a possibly mentally impaired Somali caught my attention.
We hear about thorough screening all the time, are they screening out the mentally ‘challenged?’ Apparently not!
From Inforum.com news:
FARGO – A Fargo man charged late last year with sexually assaulting a Mapleton store clerk appeared Wednesday, April 13, in Cass County District Court, but his case appears to be stalled for now as attorneys wait for a mental health exam.
Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ali, 36, faces charges of gross sexual imposition, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and terrorizing stemming from an incident in December at Gordy’s Travel Plaza in Mapleton. The most serious charge, Class AA felony gross sexual imposition, could carry a lifetime prison term if Ali were convicted.
According to this report, he told the victim as he assaulted her that she was his “wife.” Was he nuts or behaving in a manner consistent with Islamic teaching by proclaiming that she was his wife and therefore he could do this to her—allegedly beat her and sexually assault her.
Brandborg (Ali’s attorney) did not specify what he was waiting for, but Judge Tom Olson in January ordered a mental health evaluation for Ali, who communicated in court Wednesday through an interpreter.
At one point Wednesday, Ali said he was having problems at the Cass County Jail and that he was taking medication but was not sleeping. [Note to local and state taxpayers—you are footing the bill for refugee criminals, not the US State Department or the contractors that send them to your towns.—ed]
Mental evaluations are used in criminal cases to assess whether a defendant is unable to assist in his own defense or was mentally ill or deficient at the time of the alleged crime. Either situation can prevent a defendant from standing trial.
Ali’s family has said he suffers from biploar disorder and that minor criminal charges against him in Ohio and Minnesota were dismissed on mental illness grounds.
Continue reading here. And, click here, for our North Dakota archive where Lutheran contractors are in charge of bringing diversity to the state.