Husband/Wife jailed for saying Clinton Sucks

Wed Aug 21 01:08:30 PDT 1996

On Tue, 20 Aug 1996, Alan Olsen wrote:

> At 08:23 PM 8/20/96 -0700, you wrote:
> 
> >A more detailed version of this story was posted on talk.politics.guns 
> >last week.  I could dig it up and post it if anyones interested.
> 
> Post it.  I would like to see it at least...
> 
You got it...

Published in Washington, D.C.   July 9, 1996
Insult to Clinton leads to 2 arrests

------------------------------------------------------
By Ruth Larson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
------------------------------------------------------
[A] Chicago-area couple were arrested on charges of
    disorderly conduct and interrogated for more than
12 hours last week, simply because the woman told
President Clinton exactly what she thought of him.
  Last Tuesday, Mr. Clinton made an impromptu stop at
the "Taste of Chicago" festival in Grant Park at
midafternoon.
  According to her husband, Patricia Mendoza, angered
and upset by the recent deaths of 19 U.S. airmen in
Saudi Arabia, told the president, "You suck, and
those boys died!"
  Once the president left the area, Secret Service
agents and Chicago police converged on Mrs. Mendoza
and accused her of threatening the president, a
charge her husband, Glenn, vehemently denies.
  "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out
that if my wife had threatened the president -- which
she did not -- I can guarantee we wouldn't have been
locked up on charges of disorderly conduct," the
Westchester, Ill., man told The Washington Times in a
telephone interview last night.
  Mr. Mendoza served in the Navy for 4 1/2 years, and
he was on a ship off the Lebanese coast when the 1983
bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed
241 Marines and sailors. "I didn't sit on an aircraft
carrier for four years to be railroaded by a bunch of
Secret Service agents," he said.
  Secret Service spokesman Ar nette Heintze said:
"People don't get locked up just for saying, 'You
suck.' You could say that all day long and it's not a
violation of law or local ordinances."
  Mr. Heintze insisted that Mrs. Mendoza "made a
threatening statement" to the president, but he
refused to elaborate, saying that the matter was
under investigation. "It's a situation that happens
from time to time, but it's something we take very
seriously," he said.
  The incident sparked a media frenzy in Chicago but
had yet to surface on the East Coast until radio
talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy discussed it on his
nationally syndicated program yesterday.
  Mr. Liddy told The Times: "I think it's outrageous.
Everybody agrees that if there's a threat, the Secret
Service clearly can detain the individuals and do an
investigation.
  "But 'You suck, those boys died' is not a threat.
It's an expression of anger, contempt or ridicule.
It's wrong for the Secret Service to detain someone
if there's no threat," he said.
  Mr. Mendoza, who owns a small electronics firm, and
his wife were at the festival with their employees,
unaware that the president was coming. Suddenly, he
recalled, the Secret Service descended on the park,
throwing up barriers and preventing anyone from
leaving the area.
  A black car drove up, Mr. Clinton leaped out and
began shaking hands with onlookers, and Mrs. Mendoza
found herself face to face with the president, Mr.
Mendoza said.
  Mr. Clinton shook her hand and she reacted by
pulling it back and telling him, "You suck, those
boys died," Mr. Mendoza said. He said the president
looked at her, then motioned to an assistant as he
moved along the rest of the line. "He wasn't
pleased," Mr. Mendoza said.
  Soon afterward, Mr. Mendoza said, Secret Service
agents began accusing his wife of threatening the
president's life. At that point, he said, he began
directing his wife: "Trish, don't say anything. We
need a lawyer."
  An officer told him to shut up and he responded,
"Screw you. I have a right to tell my wife to get a
lawyer when she's getting interrogated by the Secret
Service," Mr. Mendoza said.
  He concluded, "The fact is, I was arrested because
I was swearing at my wife."
  Chicago police arrested the couple at the request
of the Secret Service. The Mendozas were questioned
until their release on personal-recognizance bond at
4 a.m.
  Mr. Mendoza denied any political ill will toward
Mr. Clinton.
  "I'm apolitical. I was in the military, had a good
record, have a wife and two kids, a small business,"
he said. But he fears the incident will be
exaggerated because of election-year politics and the
Democratic National Convention coming to Chicago next
month.
  "They're making us look like Bonnie and Clyde,
Republican poster children. And that's not who we
are," Mr. Mendoza said.

------------

Published in Washington, D.C. July 10, 1996

By Ruth Larson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

   The U.S. Secret Service yesterday sought to distance itself from
the arrest of a Chicago-area couple who "insulted" President
Clinton during his visit to a festival there last week.
   Yet even as it was discounting its role in the arrests of Glenn
and Patricia Mendoza, the Secret Service was consulting with
the U.S. attorney in Chicago about criminal charges against the
couple.
   And Secret Service and Chicago police spokesmen differed on
several details of the incident, which is triggering growing
outrage on talk radio and even from a prominent Republican
member of Congress.
   The Mendozas were at the Taste of Chicago festival in Grant
Park on July 2 when Mr. Clinton dropped by to shake hands in
the crowd. Mrs. Mendoza, upset over last month's bombing deaths
of 19 U.S. airmen in Saudi Arabia, told the president as he took
her hand: "You suck, and those boys died."
   Mr. Mendoza said the president looked at her, then motioned
to an assistant as he moved along shaking hands.
   After the president left, Secret Service agents accused Mrs.
Mendoza of threatening the president. Her husband stepped in
and ordered her not to say anything until they called a lawyer.
   "That is not accurate," Secret Service spokesman Arnette
Heintze said yesterday of the Men dozas' version. "A direct
threat was made, but I'm not going to elaborate. Mrs. Mendoza has
a right to fair representation of her case, as does the
prosecution, and the newspaper is not the proper place to air
this case.
   "We were there because a verbal threat was made to the
president, and the Secret Service is responsible for the
physical safety of the president."
   Rep. Robert Livingston, Louisiana Republican, is among
those angered by what he called Secret Service overreaction.
"Is this going to be the norm? If you criticize the president,
are you going to be arrested by a bunch of federal agents and
thrown in jail overnight? That's a frightening thought."
   "I think on the heels of this FBI investigation, with these
FBI files in the White House, this kind of symbolizes an
appalling lack of respect for human rights and for the rights of
people to speak out in this country," Mr. Livingston said in a
C-SPAN interview.
   Mr. Heintze, who complained about continuing media
interest in the Mendoza matter, said the Secret Service thought
there was no need to arrest the couple at the festival because
Mr. Clinton had moved on. He said Chicago police arrested the
Mendozas because of their conduct after the president left.
   "The Mendozas refused to follow police directions, and so
they opted to arrest them. We supported them in their action,
but it was an independent act by the police.
   "The arrest was separate and incidental to our questioning of
the Mendozas," Mr. Heintze said.
   The Mendozas were charged with disorderly conduct, a
misdemeanor, and were interrogated for 12 hours before they
were released. No federal charges have been filed.
   The case has been complicated by conflicting details from the
principals:
   The Chicago Police Department says it is handling the
matter. Department spokesman Patrick Camden said yesterday,
"There's no Secret Service involvement, to my knowledge." The
couple are scheduled to appear in misdemeanor court Aug. 27.
   But Ralph Grayson, special agent in charge of the Secret
Service's Chicago office, said his agency has an "ongoing
investigation" into the matter.
   The Secret Service said Mrs. Mendoza made a "threatening
statement" to the president that was far more serious than the
one Mrs. Mendoza says she made, but it declined to say what the
threat was.
   Mr. Camden said Mrs. Mendoza had hinted at "blowing up
the president." "She said something to the effect that 'He [Mr.
Clinton] should have been blown up instead of the 19
servicemen.'"
   Mr. Heintze said emphatically, "That is not accurate, and
don't try to find out what the threat was."
   A Chicago police spokesman said yesterday that the Secret
Service had not asked them to arrest the Mendozas, as was
previously reported, but that the couple were arrested for
creating a disturbance.
   The extent to which alcohol contributed to the incident is
also in question.
   Mr. Camden said: "Sure, there was alcohol. They both had
been drinking. A rational person doesn't act that way. This was
a family event, there were kids around, and these people were
saying a lot more than 'You suck.' In fact, it rhymed with
'suck.'"
   Mr. Mendoza acknowledged that when Secret Service agents
accused his wife of threatening the president's life, "I was
screaming at the top of my lungs. Granted, I was angry, scared,
upset, and if that's disorderly, I guess so."
   He said he was not drunk. Mr. Mendoza said he repeatedly
demanded that he be given a blood breath test, but the police
refused.
   "We wouldn't do a Breathalyzer test, even if he asked," the
police spokesman said.
   "We are so sensitive about First Amendment rights," said the
Secret Service spokesman. "I can assure you that if the Secret
Service was doing anything contrary to the Constitution, the
president would not tolerate it, and he would make big
changes," he said.

* Joyce Price contributed to this report.

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