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...And all within the shadow of Red & Bunny's diner

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by TigerVols, Feb 21, 2007.

  1. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Man mistakes porn DVD as woman's cries for help
    He faces charges after entering apartment with sword in tow
    By DAVID DOEGE
    ddoege@journalsentinel.com
    Posted: Feb. 20, 2007
    Oconomowoc - Instincts took over, James Van Iveren says, when he rushed out his door to the sound of a woman being raped in an apartment above.

    "It was a woman screaming," he recalled Tuesday. "She was screaming for help."

    Sword in hand, he bounded up the stairs, kicked in the door and confronted a man who turned out to be alone - watching a pornographic movie.

    "Now I feel stupid," Van Iveren said.

    Worse yet, police seized his sword - a family heirloom - carted him to jail and referred the case to a prosecutor who charged Van Iveren with three criminal counts.

    "This really is nothing," Van Iveren insisted, "nothing but a mistake."

    Van Iveren's "mistake" unfolded on the morning of Feb. 12 when Van Iveren, 39, of Oconomowoc, was listening to music in the apartment he shares with his mother behind Red & Bunny's Diner on S. Main St.

    Suddenly, according to Van Iveren, the distinct cries of a woman pleading for help could be heard coming from the apartment above him. He tried putting them out of his mind at first, but when they persisted, Van Iveren decided something had to be done.

    "I don't have a telephone," he said. "I couldn't call the police."

    The cries seemed to be coming from the apartment of a tenant he barely knew, but that, Van Iveren said, didn't matter.

    "It had nothing to do with him," he said. "I didn't even know if he was there. It was the woman. I thought there was a woman."

    The woman, according to a criminal complaint, was on a DVD being watched by the neighbor, who later played part of the movie back for police to point out what he figured Van Iveren heard downstairs.

    To Van Iveren, the neighbor's film sounded like a rape in progress.

    "So I grabbed the cavalry sword and ran upstairs," he said. "I intended to hold it behind my back and knock.

    "But I froze and instead, what happened happened."

    According to the criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning, damaging the frame and lock in the process.

    "Where is she?" Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the 39-inch sword at the neighbor, according to the complaint. "Where is she?"

    The neighbor told police that Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he'd heard a woman being raped. With the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone, according to the complaint.

    Van Iveren said it wasn't nearly that dramatic.

    "I walked in the front room and looked around," he said. "When I saw there was no woman, I left.

    "I went downstairs and when I looked out the window, I saw the police had come, so I went out to tell them what happened."

    Van Iveren insisted that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.

    "I had the sword extended," he said. "But that was all."

    The neighbor wasn't home when a reporter visited the building Tuesday, and he could not be reached by telephone.

    For his effort, Van Iveren was charged with criminal trespass while using a dangerous weapon, criminal damage to property while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon, all criminal misdemeanors that carry a maximum total penalty of 33 months in jail.

    "All of them are going to be dismissed," he predicted. "They have to.

    "This was all just a big mistake."

    The prosecutor who issued the charges could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Van Iveren, who was released on a signature bond when he was charged last week, is due to appear in court March 5.
     
  2. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Wow, that's a wild story. Not sure how I feel about this one, since the stories of the guy and the neighbor seem quite different. If what the sword-waving guy said is true, you almost feel the charges should be dropped. But if he was as aggressive as was claimed, then maybe not.
     
  3. Another Wisconsinite loon. Seriously, there's gotta be something in the water up there.
     
  4. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Wonder if pancakes were on the menu.
     
  5. Perry White

    Perry White Active Member

    UPDATE
    http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=569088 (via The Obscure Store)

    Swordsman's claim disputed
    Prosecutor says sounds on neighbor's DVD were consensual sex, not rape


    But if Van Iveren was attempting to rescue what he thought was a woman in danger he was "obnoxiously late," said Stieghorst, who said he watched the movie between 1 and 2:30 a.m., but Van Iveren did not burst into his apartment until about 11:30 a.m.
    ...
    Stieghorst, who said he has lived in his small downtown apartment for five years, said he was watching an adult DVD in Spanish called "Casa de Culo." He said the movie has no screaming that would suggest to someone a woman was in danger.

    "It's all in Spanish, and I don't understand a word of it," he said. "I only bought it for the hot chicks."
     
  6. Wait, he watched a porno for 90 minutes? Does that make him the anti-BYH?
     
  7. kokane_muthashed

    kokane_muthashed Active Member

    Wonder if boots has ever rented that porn? Translates to "Ass House"
     
  8. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    How do you not bust out laughing if you're the reporter interviewing the main characters in this story?
     
  9. Perry White

    Perry White Active Member

    The porn-watcher looks a lot less scary than the guy with the sword: http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/5961006.html
     
  10. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    How much shit is Mr. Porn Guy taking at work right now?
     
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