Is James MacDonald About To Get Off Scot-Free On His Assault and Battery Charges?
Five months ago, disgraced former Harvest Church pastor James MacDonald was arrested and charged with felony battery and assault after attacking a 59-year-old woman in a road rage incident, sending her to the hospital with ‘serious injuries.’
He would later claim that she was the aggressor, not him, but also that he ‘blacked out’ during their interaction and doesn’t remember much.
“I barely touched the lady in front of me. She jumped out of her car and came running at me. And I was so startled that I jumped out of my car and didn’t even put it in park, and it rolled into the person behind me, and I reached toward this lady.… And what I think we’ve been able to piece together, there isn’t a video, but I think I blacked out, and I fell. The reason I know is because I fell to the ground. I never put my hands underneath me.”
...According to counselors I’ve been to, I’ve been diagnosed as having symptoms of PTSD… “I’ve done a lot of counseling with Henry Cloud, and he’s helped me understand two very important sentences. … The first one is first they idolize you. And then they demonize you.”
If ‘blacking out’ during the interacting and having no memory of beating up an elderly lady seems awfully convenient, it just may be. According to a recent report by Todd Wilhelm, MacDonald, and his lawyer have requested and received a Mental Health Diversion Initial Hearing to take place on September 5.
What is a Mental Health Diversion Initial Hearing? According to sources:
If you’re a California resident with a mental health disorder and currently facing criminal charges, California laws may dismiss those charges after completing a treatment program. Once you’ve gone through the treatment program, your records are sealed, allowing you somewhat of a fresh start.
The stipulation is that the mental health disorder must be diagnosed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It typically applies to bipolar or schizophrenia but also may apply to PTSD, which MacDonald claims he’s been diagnosed with.
If granted, it would allow MacDonald to enter into a pre-trial diversion program and avoid jail time or any of the expected consequences typically associated with wailing on a woman so bad during a road rage incident that she’s hospitalized, on account of the PTSD he’s acquired after losing his ministry through all fault of his own.
Given that it’s California and MacDonald is a conniver extraordinaire, the odds of this being successful are all but assured.
About Author
You lost credibility when you called a 59 year old “elderly”. What are you, 12?🤦🏻♀️
I knew this guy was a flake when I heard the cheesy opening song to his ‘Bible Study’
🎶walk-walk-walk-in the word🎶
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
What a complete mess of a man this is.