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Mental Patient Charged With Threat to Bush

Posted on: Friday, 7 April 2006, 21:00 CDT

By JIM SUHR

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A man threatened President Bush while receiving mental-health care, according to an indictment that raises questions about how to treat such comments by mental patients.

Federal grand jurors indicted Arafat Nijmeh on two felony counts of "knowingly and willfully" threatening to harm Bush - first by telling two workers at his treatment center that he wanted to castrate Bush, then a day later to Secret Service agents notified by the center.

The indictment issued March 23 and made public this week says Nijmeh, a Palestinian, told the agents that his threat "is not too harsh, considering what he has done to my country. If not that, then maybe something else, you know?"

Nijmeh, 26, later said he was joking. He remained in custody Friday pending a bail hearing Monday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Massey and defense lawyer Phil Kavanaugh declined to discuss the case further. Authorities also would not discuss Nijmeh's residency status in the United States or his mental health treatment, citing privacy concerns.

J. Steven Beckett, a University of Illinois law professor, said Nijmeh's statements at the Alton Mental Health Center might be "delirious rantings of a mental patient."

"It's national security gone berserk," Beckett said. He speculated that some details of the case have been kept secret, but added, "My immediate reaction here is, `Who's nuts?'"

Eric Pingolt, who heads the Secret Service's Springfield office, said generally, the Secret Service takes all threats seriously and weighs factors including the suspect's mental state or placement in a treatment center in deciding the threat's validity and whether to get a prosecutor involved.

"Everything is judged case by case," he said.

The Secret Service also considers the suspect's background. Nijmeh was sentenced to three years in Illinois prison for recklessly discharging a firearm and, in November 2004, got a year of probation for aggravated battery, St. Clair County Circuit Court records show.

A phone call to Nijmeh apartment in Belleville was unanswered Friday afternoon.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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