Texas woman planted a gun in boy's backpack and then called school officials to 'teach him a lesson'

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/31/1340661/-Texas-woman-planted-a-gun-in-boy-s-backpack-and-then-called-school-officials-to-teach-him-a-lesson


This is a woman in need of some serious help. Heather Hodges didn't get along with her boyfriend's 13-year-old son and "wanted to teach him a lesson":

So she took her boyfriend’s 9-millimeter Smith and Wesson handgun, replaced the child’s cologne and deodorant in his backpack, and then called Magnolia Junior High School from a nearby payphone to report him by name.

The poor kid was placed in a juvenile detention facility while school officials asked for an investigator from the Sheriff's office:

Retired MCSO investigator Mike Price said this was an important move, because of his experience as an interrogator, since it took multiple interviews to get Hodges to open up about what happened and her motives.

“It was very unusual,” Price said. “Initially, we wanted to know what was (McKeegan’s) intent with the pistol. Did he bring it to school to harm someone, or just to show to his friends? He kept insisting that he knew he brought a gun to school, but he didn’t realize it until the principal found the gun in his backpack. He was insistent.

“He was so consistent with his story and he came across so sincere, not just emotionally, but how he just stayed with his story and would not waver from it, that my position was that there’s something to this. I was the lone wolf at that point.”

A judge decided to teach Heather Hodges a lesson, sentencing her to 3-years in prison. Thankfully the boy now lives with his mother in another state.

[Hoyt]

1. Boyfriend must be one of those" responsible" gun owners they tell us about.

Girlfriend has her problems too, but daddy needs to keep his little gun locked up.

[Dorian Gray]

4. That was my first thought

though I guess it's possible he did lock it up and she knew the combination or had a key.

Regardless, that woman is reprehensible. Who does that to a child? Seriously, what the fuckity fuck?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

12. Why should adults secure their guns from their domestic partners?

[Hoyt]

20. Because there is a 13 year old kid in the house. You need to turn yours in if

you are that irresponsible.. Plus, she doesn't sound very responsible either.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

24. Do you ever do anything besides emote? Do you actually pay attention to facts?

This is not a story of a gun being irresponsibly left for a child to get a hold of; it's a story about an adult deliberately and maliciously putting the gun in the child's backpack and then calling the authorities to arrest the child.

Good gravy. If I didn't know better I would swear you're really a pro-NRA plant sent to make gun control advocates look ridiculous.

[Hoyt]

32. She's bad, so is the ignorant gun owner. I guess you think he's a good guy with a gun?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

33. And what's to have stopped her from

planting illegal drugs or prescribed medications or a knife or kiddie porn? She could have accessed all of those things. She chose to commit a crime out of spite.

What, in your blind incoherence, are you proposing? That adult domestic partners keep their guns secured from each other?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Don't you love these people?

Call the cops on someone to ruin a kid's life, and then the kid is chewed up in the prison-industrial complex, just because some authority figure with no psychological training wants to ruin a child's chances of learning a trade or getting any kind of an education. Because they are mad at the kid and they are the adult.

Glad they caught this............uh, female.

[randome]

23. "Chewed up"? Sounds like this kid had quite a lot going for him to have stayed calm.

Enough to convince the authorities to keep pressing the girlfriend for the truth.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[Manifestor_of_Light]

31. He would have been chewed up later in the PIC, is what I said,

had the authorities not busted the lying girlfriend and believed the boy.

[Dorian Gray]

3. Holy hell

what an asshole. Glad she got three years. Who does this to a child?

And what if he found gun and accidentally shot himself or another child?

[SheilaT]

5. Hey, so long as guns are legal this is perfectly okay.

In the alternate universe guns would be vastly more regulated, and something like this couldn't happen.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. Or she could have used drugs, legal or illegal, or she could have planted alcohol, a knife or

child pornography or any one of a dozen contraband items.

[hack89]

8. Because we know there are no illegal guns in America

So making all guns illegal will make them disappear. I'm with you.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. Not disappear, just become much, much rarer.

We don't need to speculate about this in the abstract, we can look at what happened in Australia for actual evidence.

Good gun control can't get rid of gun problems, but it can make them much rarer.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. "Good gun control can't get rid of gun problems, but it can make them much rarer."

But it never gets rid of actual criminal violence -- and in cases like Mexico it doesn't even get rid of gun violence.

[hack89]

17. Heller and Peruta make Australian type laws impossible

in Australia the police have to agree that you "have a good reason" to own a gun before issuing you a permit with self defense explicitly being deemed not a valid reason - Heller says every American has the constitutional right to own a handgun in their home for self defense. Australian law also forbids the carrying of guns in public - Peruta extends Heller's right to self defense beyond one's home. Peruta is why California and Hawaii had to change their concealed carry laws from may issue to shall issue.

There are certainly laws that we could pass in America - AWBs, UBCs, even registration are constitutional. The problem for gun control advocates is not legal but political - there is not uniform widespread support for most of their agenda.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. The founding fathers made those laws impossible.

The second amendment is not phrased conditionally; I suspect it was intended to be interpreted even more absolutistly than it has been.

"Would these laws be a good thing if passed and enforced?" and "would these laws need a constitutional amendment with less chance of passing than I have of being elected pope to pass and enforce them?" are independent questions.

[hack89]

19. We can solve any problem anyway we want if we ignore the Constitution

As to whether such laws would be a good thing if passed - that is a question for the American people to answer through the political process. Right now they appear to disagree with you.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

26. The (majority of the) American people disagree with me about lots of things.

I sincerely hope there are lots of things you disagree with the majority of Americans about too.

Many problems cannot be solved legislatively, some cannot even be ameliorated. The fact that one American in 10,000 is shot to death every year could be significantly ameliorated by legislation, but doing so would require the constitution to be changed (or, as you point out, ignored).

Obviously, that's not going to happen, because it's not the will of the majority, or even the will of a large minority, sadly, and so lots of innocent people are going to go on dying needlessly.

[hack89]

27. There are many things and activities in our society that cause needless suffering and death

many kill more than guns. They are choices societies make all the time. The best you can do is work around the edges to reduce the most egregious abuses.

[Shankapotomus]

7. She sounds like a sociopath

What a sicko. Glad she is out of that kid's life.

[jollyreaper2112]

9. Jesus

That kid is so lucky someone in authority cared to dig. It would have been so easy to treat it as it appeared.

[malaise]

13. What an evil woman

[aikoaiko]

14. She should have gotten more years just for stealing the firearm

What a stupid person.

[IMG][/IMG]

[vankuria]

22. She looks like a teenager

Wonder what the lesson was she wanted to "teach"? Maybe she just wanted to find a way to get rid of him, what a horrible, disgusting piece of trash.

So glad someone took the time to dig into this and find out what was really going on, and also glad the boy is away from this stupid bitch.

[dembotoz]

15. kid learned not to trust his dad's girlfiend

an important lesson indeed

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

16. UGH She really must have resented the child

I hope she serves the entire 3 years, since she could have really destroyed that boy's future.

[Youdontwantthetruth]

21. Will the gun be getting a better home now?

For those that need it.......

[badtoworse]

25. Asshole!

[derby378]

29. Not just ANY asshole...

[stevenleser]

28. I hope she serves every day of those three years for that maneuver. nt

[AngryAmish]

30. She needs the inside of a prison cell for a long, long time

Help? That is insulting. It make it seem that women lack agency, ie not a criminal but crazy.