Arrested for Epilepsy
By JIM AVILA and LARA SETRAKIAN, ABC News Law & Justice Unit

Nov. 23, 2006 — Roughly 3 million Americans live with epilepsy. And a surprising number of them go to jail for it.

Why? Around the country, police officers and bystanders who see someone having a seizure mistake it for disorderly, criminal behavior.

That's what happened to Daniel Beloungea of Pontiac, Mich. On most days Daniel lives the normal life of a 48-year-old single man. But roughly once a week, he loses total control of his body and mind to an epileptic seizure.

A seizure took over Beloungea's body while walking through his suburban Detroit neighborhood last April. When an onlooker in a neighbor's house saw Beloungea having the seizure, which includes rapid repetitive arm motion, she misinterpreted it as criminal conduct. Specifically, she thought Beloungea was masturbating in public.

With that misconception in mind, she called the police. When the Oakland County Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene, Beloungea was still undergoing his seizure, acting disoriented and not responding to questions.

When officers couldn't get through to Beloungea they drew their weapons, shocked him with a high-voltage taser, hit him with a baton and wrestled him to the ground. They then handcuffed him and put him in a police car.

Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe said that the officers tasered Beloungea because he lunged at one of them. Beloungea and his lawyer say the more police got physical the more Beloungea got agitated and aggressive — typical behavior, according to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, for a person restrained while having a partial complex seizure. Beloungea's wild motions and inability to communicate were not defiance or resistance, but classic symptoms of epilepsy

The officers put Beloungea in jail, citing assault of a police officer and resisting arrest. Throughout the incident Beloungea, was wearing a medical alert bracelet identifying him as an epileptic, stating his name and the contact numbers of people who can be reached in case of an emergency.

Beloungea was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity. Beloungea is not insane — he's simply epileptic. But his lawyer, Otis Underwood, told ABC News there was no other way to get Beloungea off the charges than the insanity defense. The catch: He had to spend 20 days locked in a criminal mental facility.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2675812&page=1

Watchdogs fuming over ethics ruling

Web Posted: 11/27/2006 10:25 PM CST

Lisa Sandberg
Express-News Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as "currency" without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday.

The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.

"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, said the "currency" interpretation would render it "perfectly legal to report the gift of 'a wheelbarrow' without reporting that the wheelbarrow was filled with cash."

In a letter to commissioners, Earle called such an analysis "absurd and out of step with both the law and current public attitudes and concerns about corruption in government."

Monday's ruling was preceded by little discussion.

At their last meeting, commissioners said they would welcome more precise reporting but were powerless to require it, based on current laws.

"The question here is whether the description of a gift of cash of over $250 is required to include the value of the gift," the Ethics Commission opinion said in part. "The term 'description' is not defined in Chapter 572 of the Government Code, nor is it defined anywhere else in the Government Code."

"In our opinion, the requirement to describe a gift of cash or cash equivalent may be satisfied by including in the description the following: 'currency,' or a description of the gift, such as 'check' or 'money order,' as appropriate," the ruling stated.

This was the second time the commission ruled on the issue of cash gift disclosures. In March, it ruled that a gift of two checks for $100,000 could be listed simply as "checks."

The case stems from a June 2005 disclosure filed by Dallas businessman Bill Ceverha, a board member of the State Employees Retirement System board. The system oversees a nearly $20 billion fund that provides benefits for 250,000 retired state workers.

Ceverha disclosed that he received a gift, described only as a "check," from Houston home builder Bob Perry, the largest Republican donor in the state.

Both have said the check for $50,000 was supposed to help cover legal fees Ceverha incurred defending himself against a lawsuit related to his role as treasurer of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Texas fundraising operation.

The disclosure issue is sure to surface during next year's legislative session. Legislators have filed at least four bills for campaign finance, and Gov. Rick Perry has said he would support changing the current statute to require more precise reporting requirements.

Pope prays with cleric at Turkey mosque
Pope Benedict XVI, left, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I cheer at faithful from a balcony of the Ecumenical Patriarchate after attending together the Divine Liturgy in the nearby Church of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. Benedict XVI and Bartholomew later signed a joint agreement. The pope is on the third day of his four-day visit to Turkey. Pope Benedict XVI, left, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I cheer at faithful from a balcony of the Ecumenical Patriarchate after attending together the Divine Liturgy in the nearby Church of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006. Benedict XVI and Bartholomew later signed a joint agreement. The pope is on the third day of his four-day visit to Turkey. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

By Brian Murphy, AP Religion Writer  |  November 30, 2006

ISTANBUL, Turkey --Pope Benedict XVI joined an Islamic cleric in prayers under the towering dome of Istanbul's most famous mosque Thursday in a powerful gesture seeking to transform his image among Muslims from adversary to peacemaker.

The pope's minute of prayer was done in silence, but the message of reconciliation was designed to resonate loudly nearly three months after he provoked worldwide fury for remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.

"This visit will help us find together the way of peace for the good of all humanity," the pope said inside the 17th-century Blue Mosque -- in only the second papal visit in history to a Muslim place of worship. Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, made a brief stop in a mosque in Syria in 2001.

Benedict's steps through a stone archway and into the mosque's carpeted expanse capped a day of deep symbolism and lofty goals. Hours earlier, he stood beside the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians and passionately encouraged steps to end the nearly 1,000-year divide between their churches.

The pope walked to the mosque after touring another majestic tribute to faith: the 1,500-year-old Haghia Sofia and its remarkable mix of Quranic calligraphy and Christian mosaics from its legacy as a marvel of early Christianity and then a coveted prize of Islam's expansion.

At the mosque, the pope removed his shoes and put on white slippers. Then he walked beside Mustafa Cagrici, the head cleric of Istanbul. Facing the holy city of Mecca -- in the tradition of Islamic worship -- Cagrici said: "Now I'm going to pray." Benedict, too, bowed his head and his lips moved as if reciting words.

Before the pope left, he thanked Cagrici "for this moment of prayer."

"A single swallow can't bring spring," Cagrici told the pope, who ends his first papal trip to a Muslim nation Friday. "But many swallows will follow and we will enjoy a spring in this world."

The pope received a painting showing the Sea of Marmara and a glazed tile decorated with a dove. The mosque is officially known as the Sultan Ahmet Mosque after the Ottoman sultan Ahmet I, who ordered its construction. But it's widely called the Blue Mosque after its elaborate blue tiles.

The pope presented the imam with a mosaic showing four doves.

"Let us pray for brotherhood and for all humanity," Benedict said in Italian.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the mosque visit was added as a "sign of respect" to Muslims. "A (Christian) believer can pray in any place, even a mosque," Lombardi said, calling it an "intimate, personal prayer."

The pope has offered wide-ranging messages of reconciliation to Muslims since coming to Turkey on Tuesday, including appeals for greater understanding and support for Turkey's effort to become the first Muslim nation in the European Union.

The pope repeated calls for greater freedoms for religious minorities -- including the tiny Christian community in Turkey -- and denounced divisions between Christians as a "scandal."

Benedict has made reaching out to the world's more than 250 million Orthodox a centerpiece of his papacy and has set the difficult goal of "full unity" between the two ancient branches of Christianity, which split in the 11th century over disputes including papal authority.

"The divisions which exist among Christians are a scandal to the world," the pope said after joining Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to mark the feast day of St. Andrew, who preached across Asia Minor and who tradition says ordained the first bishop of Constantinople, now Istanbul.

The homage of the Orthodox feast day Liturgy also was highly significant to Roman Catholics. Andrew was the brother of St. Peter, who was martyred in Rome and is considered the first pope.

In a joint statement, the pope and patriarch stressed the need to "preserve Christian roots" in European culture while remaining "open to other religions and their cultural contributions."

The comments could send conflicting signals to Turkey after the Vatican suggested there was room in the EU for its first Muslim member. They could also serve as a rallying point for groups opposed to bringing a predominantly Muslim country into the bloc.

The pope also recalled how the faith was shaped by the encounters of early Christians with the scientific and intellectual traditions of ancient Greece. It was the same theological backdrop -- faith and reason -- that was the basis for his explosive remarks in September in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor who described Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman."

The pope avoided any direct mention of Islam after praying with Bartholomew at the St. George Church in Istanbul, capital of Christian Byzantium before falling to Muslim forces in 1453.

The echoes of the city's turbulent history were among Benedict's stops.

Haghia Sophia, once a spiritual center of Christianity, was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. The site became a museum following the secular reforms that formed modern Turkey in the 1920s.

The pope, wearing white robes, stopped often to gaze on Quranic passages carved in the ancient marble -- in some places where crosses and the fish-shaped sign of early Christians were chiseled away. Above them were frescoes and mosaics that couldn't be touched by Muslims: figures such as Jesus and the Virgin Mary, who are regarded as revered predecessors of Muhammad.

Security for the pilgrimage has been stringent. But it grew even tighter as the pope moved about Istanbul. Police blockades virtually sealed off parts of the city's ancient heart. Snipers stood watch on the minarets added to Haghia Sophia following the Muslim conquest.

About 150 nationalists demonstrated against the pope's visit to the site, gathering at a square about a half mile away and urging the government to open the museum to Muslim worship. Nationalists viewed the visit as a sign of Christian claims to the site and a challenge to Turkish sovereignty.

"Haghia Sophia is Turkish and will remain Turkish," one protest sign read. Riot police surrounded the demonstrators to prevent them from reaching the site.

Of Turkey's 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant. Some 23,000 are Jewish.