Today, a judge granted "Accelerated Rehabilitation" probation to Andrea Mears. Mears is the 23yr old woman that violently attacked a responsible UAV pilot at a large CT state park back in May 2014. She then lied to the police claiming he attacked her. He had video of the whole event showing she launched an unprovoked attack on him. And it turns out his video from the Iris was so high up and far away, you couldn't make out any of the people on the beach anyway. It was scenery video, not beach babe video.
For those who are not familiar, Accelerated Rehabilitation ("AR") in Connecticut is also know as Probation Before Judgement ("PBJ") in other states. It is not a conviction with a sentence of probation. Instead you are put on probation before trial and judgement. You are on probation for X years with conditions that must be met. If you behave and do not violate any of those conditions, your record will be wiped clean. No record at all. The case is dropped and no record is left.
Mears was given two years of AR, which is rather common in CT. If she behaves for those two years, her record will be wiped clean. She receives no fine, no jail, no punishment, no restitution, nothing. Literally, her "punishment" is that she is not allowed to commit crimes for the next two years.
Personally I think it is pathetic. She violently assaulted an unarmed non-aggressive minor, made false statements to the police via 911, and made false statements to the police in person when they arrived. She attempted to frame him for a crime he didn't commit by claiming he assaulted her. Had it not been for his video, the police would have arrested him for assaulting her. And for this, her punishment is being told not to do that again for two years.
Aerial video:
Comments
Hundreds of people probably see mine where I fly in the neighborhood. Fortunately they all think it's the coolest thing.
Once a liar, always a liar. She's the ex-girlfriend of a friend of a friend. I asked. "She's a complete nut job".
If you did not see this its worth a watch,
http://www.onenewspage.us/video/20140618/1882288/Drone-Flying-Over-...
Evenyone i
s making excellent points but the thing is this sort of stuff is just going to be come more common the more mainstream our "hobby" gets. It seems to me that we as a community need to anticipate events like this and take measures to protect ourselves just in case. Perhaps something as simple as another camera tucked away and recording you, your ground station, and landing zone while on location so there's zero chances my integrity can be questioned. I can only guess how this same type of situation could transpire in a number of ways; from what we saw here to some chicks bro of a boyfriend walking up behind a goggled pilot and getting sucker punched with out ever really knowing what happened. Thank god the guy had the sense to pull his phone out and record the confrontation, I for one probably wouldn't have thought of that and just defended myself, especially at that age. But from my dealings with the public I know better then most that "people" can not be trusted to do the right thing when no one else is looking. I for one am going to take a cue from this stark example of the what the masses know about our "helicopter/planes things" and take precautions to protect and defend myself.
Anyone interested in kickstarting a personal big brother cam for drone enthusiasts? or I guess you could just get a cheap dash cam and use that, no kickstarting needed!
No, not surprised at all. I said as soon as the incident happened, long before I ever came on here. It was a foregone conclusion and not at all surprising.
If she actually had an ounce of remorse for her actions, I might not be so annoyed. But nope. She maintains that she did nothing wrong, he is lying, and that apparently his video camera is lying.
Thanks for this article. It is valuable reference for future cases.
I do think that future cases will be treated in the same fashion by the courts though. I think most people like this woman, have intentions to harass (or assault) as strongly as possible while allowing the ambiguity of one persons opinion over another's. It's been used in history over and over "I didn't do it" or "Prove it".
I'm also happy to acknowledge an amount of gender imbalance to this problem too. Men & Women have allowed themselves to portray Men as the thug, brute and worse. And likewise, Men & Women have allowed themselves to portray Women as divine vessels of creation.
It is no wonder a Woman will behave in such a manner and feel shocked that she's even in a situation with the law.
Be proactive towards gender equality, I say.
So this is a country of equal rights eh...
Furthering Gary's point. You'll notice in the video that the entire time she is attacking him, she is looking out in the distance down the road. Hmm. Why would you be looking somewhere other than at the person you are attacking??? Perhaps keeping an eye out for the police or any witnesses? Clearly she knew exactly what she was doing, planned it, and consciously executed that plan.
I don't agree Brian,
She went well out of her way to come over and approach the drone flyer, tried to prevent him from touching his stuff, called the police and then assaulted him and then lied about what happened to the police saying he was entirely the aggressor.
Where he in fact clearly demonstrated exactly the opposite was true.
He would have spent considerable time in jail based on her completely fabricated testimony which she was clearly prepared to give.
Clearly this woman has no moral compunction at all and is only interested in her interpretation of the way the World ought to operate so that it best serves her.
And she has no regard at all for how her actions might be detrimental to anyone else.
If this poor kid hadn't had recorded it with his cell phone, he would be in jail at this very moment because of her lies.
And basically losing her temper is not a sufficient reason to commit a felonious assault on anybody - ever.
At the very least she should have been required to undergo extensive psychological treatment and to get a release from the Psychiatrist saying she was "stable".
I don't know what kind of civil restitution that the victim could get from this, but if it was worthwhile it should be pursued in no small part to compensate for this clear miscarriage of justice.
This is the very sort of injustice that makes people truly have contempt for our legal system, here and globally.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next