Sunday, July 13, 2014

Former Bush 43 counsel convicted of attempted murder

John Michael Farren, who served as deputy White House counsel during President George W. Bush’s second term, was found guilty of attempted murder, first-degree assault, and risk of injury to a child.

Farren allegedly beat his wife unconscious with a metal flashlight two days after she served him with divorce papers. He faces up to 50 years in prison.

Mary Margaret Farren, his wife, successfully sued her husband for $28.6 million over the injuries she suffered in the attack, which left her with a broken jaw.
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The first paragraph says he was convicted of attempted murder, the second paragraph says he allegedly beat his wife unconscious. Is that contradictory?

22 comments:

edutcher said...

Yes, but, since it's Boooosh, who cares about logic?

Unknown said...

Some men snap when the relationship is over.

The good news for media hacks - this story will help push larger national stories off the front.

I wonder how long MSNBC will milk it?

Unknown said...

correction: Some people snap. Equal opportunity snapping.

Unknown said...

Was there a cycle of violence inside Boooosh legal counsel? Find out at 11.

Shouting Thomas said...

I've been getting messages from the lefties on the internet all morning that this is just another proof of the ultimate evil of the Bushes.

Not that I'm exactly a fan of either Bush.

Then again, I'm not a fan of any politician.

The Dude said...

Sounds like they really needed a divorce, just sayin'.

deborah said...

Sixty ftw.

First time I heard of this case was today.

I read a story once about a woman who considerately filed for divorce, and under the auspices of a different county from which they lived, had her husband served with papers so he would not be locally embarrassed. He beat the hell out of her or killed her. Can't remember, but killed her I think.

Amartel said...

Local news story is national Timesworthy news because Booooooosh and Rethuglicans. Meanwhile, in actual national news, everybody who has died in the past five and half years was murdered by Boooooosh and the Rethuglicans (the hits just keep on coming ...).

ampersand said...

I read the comments first,thinking the references to Mr. Sink meant Clinton.

Then I noticed the byline for Justin Sink.

Amartel said...

Maybe the "unconscious" part is what "alleged" is modifying. Or maybe journalists just put "alleged" in front of everything law-related automatically.

Rabel said...

One of these days.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Deborah:

RE the seeming contradiction in the use of "alleged":

I'm not an attorney so take this as such: but it occurs to me that the first assertion -- he was convicted is an incontrovertible fact, and as such, is not defamatory. On the other hand, any particular fact of the case may not be so clear; and therefore, the news outlet is avoiding any defamation or similar sort of legal jeopardy.

deborah said...

Good point, Martin. Also I do not get how they can prove attempted murder. Maybe the child present(?) reported him saying, 'I'm going to kill you.'

(To the moon!)

The Dude said...

Twenty two years ago my dear sweet ex- demanded that I tell her where the shotgun (which her father had given us) was. "I'm going to blow your fucking head off!"

I didn't take time to try to parse the precise meaning of her declaration, just called the sheriff. She was charged with uttering a threat or some such.

Prior to that, however, sensing (Spidey senses to the rescue!) that things were going to get ugly, I had taken the shotgun (a bolt action Marlin 12 gauge with a 3 shot mag) out to the garage and bent the barrel back in my best imitation of an Elmer Fudd/Bug Bunny cartoon - it would not have fired, nor would it have resulted in a comically sooted face for the shooter - it would have just blown up.

Anyway, I tell that story by way of illustrating that marriages and divorces can in fact turn ugly, even when one party is as level headed as I am.

Synova said...

I made the mistake of looking at the comments.

I think that the "allegedly" is journalist habit.

MamaM said...

It may not have been the beating. It could have been the squeezing or the slamming. More than a flashlight to the head was involved.

She said Mr. Farren was on top of her, squeezing her neck and slamming her head into the floor. “He said, ‘I’m killing you,’ ” she testified.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I tried to beat my wife with a flashlight but it was one of those you strap to your forehead so I just gave myself a terrible neck cramp.

Lydia said...

The AP piece in the NY Times links to a long 2010 Wash. Post article on this. It sounds horrific:

It's unclear whether the couple saw each other before that Wednesday night, when, according to police accounts, Mike Farren said he wanted her to drop the proceedings and stay together. She said she could not. He walked toward her.

When she said, "Do not approach me," he "exploded in rage," she told police. She has flowing brunette hair. Her husband pulled out "gobs" of it, she said. She said he threw her across the room and began hitting her with a metal flashlight. On the floor, she passed out for a time, she told police, and went briefly blind when he strangled her.

Then she remembered the alarm button on the security system, which automatically summoned police.

"Don't hit the alarm button," Mike Farren warned, according to the police account. When she managed to do so, "he went nuts" at the sound, she reported. Again, the flashlight.

At this point, according to the affidavit, she pleaded with him to stop, saying they could work it out. He paused for a moment, she wrote, then decided: "You're just saying that because you're scared."

Mike Farren then announced he was going to slit his wrists, his wife said. She told police he took a kitchen knife into the bathroom and made an effort to get her in as well. Instead she scrambled to her daughter's room screaming, "Daddy's trying to kill me," got the startled barefoot girl and her infant sister down to the garage, into the BMW sedan and past the gate.

The bloody BMW keys were photographed as evidence. So was Mary Margaret's lacerated face, broken nose, broken jaw, bruised arms, legs, torso. In an image now attached to the divorce action, she leans forward in the emergency room, the entire chair behind her black with blood. Police ended the interview the second time she began vomiting blood.

MamaM said...

I tried to beat my wife with a flashlight but it was one of those you strap to your forehead so I just gave myself a terrible neck cramp.

A small bite or drop of guano would have been the natural way to go.

This other stuff is batshit crazy in addition to horrific. Rage gone wild.

rcocean said...

OJ allegedly killed his ex-wife. Or so I heard.

deborah said...

Sixty, you remind me of a line from the Tom Hanks/Shelly Long movie, Money Pit. Hanks told his friend that he and Shelly got along pretty well, and his friend scoffed that he hand his wife got along better than them, and they'd exchanged gunfire.

The Dude said...

LOL!

Wedded bliss, I calls it!

I miss my wife, but my aim is getting better!

Enough, this is a serious subject, and I really wonder about anyone who can't just leave and get on with their life. There is no upside to fighting.