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duraniedrama (duraniedrama) wrote in unfunnybusiness,
@ 2010-02-03 23:48:00

Maybe Instead Of Prison, They'll Put Him In A Sweat Lodge And Won't Let Him Out . . .
Remember James Arthur Ray's sweat lodge death catastrophe?

He's been arrested for manslaughter for the incident.

Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday on manslaughter charges after three people died following a northern Arizona sweat lodge ceremony he led last year.

Ray was taken into custody on an indictment at his attorney's office in Prescott and later led into the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and a dark jacket. His bond was set at $5 million, and his first court hearing was scheduled Thursday.

Ray's attorneys said Wednesday he surrendered to authorities but that the charges were unjust and they were confident he would be exonerated in court. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 12 1/2 years on each count.

Let's see if he can manifest his ass out of this one.

(Post a new comment)

	bienegold 2010-02-04 06:34 am UTC (link)
	That's fantastic that he got arrested. What a shame it's only manslaughter. (I know there's not really a justification for a higher degree, but he deserves it.) (Reply to this)(Thread)

ekaterinv
2010-02-04 07:27 am UTC (link)

He stopped people from administering CPR, didn't he?

To me, the entire thing sounds like a homicidal psychopath trying to kill as many people as possible at once. Was it purposeful violence, or immeasurable stupidity? Yeah, I know, probably stupidity, but there comes a point where I'm not sure it matters. And that point is where you stick 60 dehydrated people into a shack in Arizona.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bienegold, 2010-02-04 07:53 am UTC

cleolinda, 2010-02-04 06:57 pm UTC

	duraniedrama 2010-02-04 10:37 pm UTC (link)
	According to Salty Droid's take on it, manslaughter looks to be a higher degree than negligent homicide, which is what most people were expecting he was going to be charged with. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

bienegold, 2010-02-04 10:58 pm UTC

	blue_penguin 2010-02-04 07:44 am UTC (link)
	Ray was [...] led into the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes and a dark jacket. Well, I'm so glad they told us what he was wearing! I don't know what I would have done without that vital piece of information. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	jupiterpluvius 2010-02-04 11:28 am UTC (link)
	It's kind of nice to see irrelevant clothing data about a man for a change. But one does wonder. Do you think they were trying to underscore that he's just a middle-aged white guy, not Prince Sparkle Pony of the Gottalottamoola Pretendians? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ashenmote 2010-02-04 11:50 am UTC (link)
	Well, I googled for the dress combination and wow, there's a lot of bank robbery suspects out there described as wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes combined with various sorts of dark jackets. I guess we can consider these cases solved now. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tehrin 2010-02-04 07:24 pm UTC (link)
	Reminds me of walking posts on ontd_startrek. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	napalmnacey 2010-02-04 09:05 am UTC (link)
	He's connected to the whole "The Secret" crap, right? Maybe if he wishes REALLY HARD, and puts it out there that he's innocent, it'll happen!! Yeah! And I can perform The Magic Flute with my butt!! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	pariforma 2010-02-04 03:16 pm UTC (link)
	I think if you could perform The Magic Flute with your butt, Wolfgang would ROFLHAO. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ladyvyola, 2010-02-04 07:50 pm UTC

pariforma, 2010-02-04 07:52 pm UTC

sukeban, 2010-02-05 11:35 am UTC

jupiterpluvius
2010-02-04 11:26 am UTC (link)

This is a so much better outcome than I had hoped for.

Yeah, I would have gone for "criminally negligent homicide" or the jurisdiction's equivalent if I had been the DA, but they may have downcharged to be sure that they went for something that would stick. The New Age stuff is a huge piece of the area's economy, so it's unlikely that they could find a jury of folks who weren't connected to it in some way, and thus they might have gone for what they thought they could get.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2010-02-04 03:04 pm UTC (link)
	This. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sockpuppeteer 2010-02-04 03:41 pm UTC (link)
	I'm betting that they went with what they thought they could get. Frankly I will be amazed if he gets any jail time but I do hope that he can't come up with the bond. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	theladyfeylene 2010-02-04 05:14 pm UTC (link)
	At this point, I swear, all the New Age stuff is what's supporting the local economy. I hang with a big Prescott College crowd, and everyone's been talking about this. Thankfully they're all sane and disgusted by the whole thing, but... I've met more than enough loonies that would let him off scott free. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	duraniedrama 2010-02-04 10:39 pm UTC (link)
	Manslaughter is apparently a step above negligent homicide in the Arizona code. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

jupiterpluvius, 2010-02-05 03:00 am UTC

cleolinda
2010-02-04 03:46 pm UTC (link)

There was a really, ah... interesting defense of this guy, but the blogger seems to have taken ALL of her posts down now, which does not surprise me in light of how very interesting her response was. (She was saying that she herself runs sweatlodges with very similar methods and SHE has never killed anyone, and that actual Native Americans don't have a monopoly on these practices because Jesus went on a vision quest too but it doesn't matter anyway because her spirit is actually Native American and let her tell you, internets, she was very surprised to wake up in this life and "look in the mirror and see a white chick.")

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	bitca 2010-02-04 04:13 pm UTC (link)
	Google still has it in their cache. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

duraniedrama, 2010-02-04 04:35 pm UTC

tachikoma01, 2010-02-04 05:18 pm UTC

rganymede, 2010-02-04 05:48 pm UTC

cleolinda, 2010-02-04 06:49 pm UTC

sandglass, 2010-02-05 05:40 am UTC

honorh, 2010-02-05 11:16 am UTC

ecchaniz0r, 2010-02-05 06:13 pm UTC

inalasahl, 2010-02-04 06:29 pm UTC

misachan, 2010-02-04 07:02 pm UTC

snarkhunter, 2010-02-04 07:50 pm UTC

lady_ganesh, 2010-02-04 08:36 pm UTC

kitt_in_socks, 2010-02-04 11:02 pm UTC

platedlizard, 2010-02-05 06:57 am UTC

ekaterinv, 2010-02-05 11:49 am UTC

	rimrunner 2010-02-04 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	I saw that! Teh stoopid, it burns. There are ways to do sweats safely, of course, whether you're following a traditional practice or not. This case is a pretty clear instance of Doin' It Wrong. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rganymede 2010-02-04 06:15 pm UTC (link)
	This post of hers is also pretty special, if unrelated. Also, I'm finding it weird that she didn't have any posts before this January. She set that blog up and took it down fairly quickly. Unless she's deleted a lot of her posts before, too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

cleolinda, 2010-02-04 06:52 pm UTC

shivi, 2010-02-05 09:55 am UTC

ekaterinv, 2010-02-05 11:45 am UTC

ecchaniz0r, 2010-02-05 07:42 pm UTC

	issendai 2010-02-04 07:18 pm UTC (link)
	My god, it's AyahuascaDreams's less stoned big sister. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

randomsome1, 2010-02-06 06:16 am UTC

	bitca 2010-02-04 07:38 pm UTC (link)
	Oh my god. I found her website. Not advocating a dogpiling or anything, but scroll over the top right or left images, if you have sound on your computer. http://www.spiritwhisperer.com/ (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

eleutheria, 2010-02-04 09:00 pm UTC

duraniedrama, 2010-02-04 10:44 pm UTC

ekaterinv, 2010-02-05 12:03 pm UTC

	jupiterpluvius 2010-02-05 03:04 am UTC (link)
	This was dissected in great detail on sf_drama. (Reply to this)(Parent)

jaseroque, 2010-02-05 02:56 pm UTC

	theladyfeylene 2010-02-04 05:12 pm UTC (link)
	Wow, another case where real life blends into internet life. O.o I've been following this closely, as it's all happening in my own home town, and completely forgot that I first heard about it on Unfunny. lives in Prescott (Reply to this)

chaootaku
2010-02-05 12:52 am UTC (link)

A lot of people I know have been taking issue with the fact that they're even reporting it as a Sweat ceremony in the first place. To quote, since it's been put better than I ever could:

His was NOT a sweat lodge ceremony. It was someone using the ignorance of individuals and their lack of knowledge of another's spiritual practices and safety protocols to extort money from them. It was a scam, NOT a ceremony. If you are going to report something. Report what it is, not what one person disguised it to be.

(Reply to this)

	brennalarose 2010-02-05 01:11 am UTC (link)
	Ray's attorneys said Wednesday he surrendered to authorities but that the charges were unjust and they were confident he would be exonerated in court. sporfle Seriously? Are they serious? (Reply to this)(Thread)

mary_mac, 2010-02-05 12:07 pm UTC

	alexa 2010-02-06 06:27 pm UTC (link)
	I don't remember hearing about this before, but... good. This reminds me of a lot of stuff going on in the "raw food community," where there's a lot of overlap with the New Age community. Popular "gurus" with no real credentials or qualifications dispense medical advice. And sometimes, they say some really questionable things. (Reply to this)(Thread)

issendai, 2010-02-07 04:27 am UTC

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