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The Police Blotter: Someone Might Need a 72-Hour Psych Hold
NEW YORK – A college philosophy teacher arrested after entering St. Patrick’s Cathedral carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters had also been arrested at a New Jersey cathedral this week and had booked a Thursday flight to Rome, the New York Police Department said.
Marc Lamparello, 37, is facing charges including attempted arson and reckless endangerment after his arrest Wednesday night at the New York City landmark, said John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.
It happened just days after Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was ravaged by a fire that investigators said Thursday was most likely electrical. Miller would not discuss anything Lamparello told investigators after his arrest but stressed that there “doesn’t appear to be any connection to any terrorist group or any terrorist-related intent here.”
A Psych hold is a civil hold, as is a Detox hold. The Detox hold lasts about eight hours; in some circles, it is called the “Drunk Tank.” The Detox hold is an easy report for an officer to write — “Subject intoxicated, unable to care for himself, or herself.” The Psych hold is a bit more difficult, but it can be done.
After this subject’s first arrest, he stepped up his game on his visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Congrats to Cathedral security, and the NYPD for stopping this individual, and for his arrest.
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Published in Policing
The dude spilled gasoline. On the floor of a cathedral.
Yeah, that’s gonna attract attention.
“I’ve been thrown out of better cathedrals than this!”
Doug,
Given the facts you mean all that you can hold this guy for is 72 hours?
Regards,
Jim
I’ve updated my piece on the range of threats to incorporate this updated information: Red-Green Coalition versus Church [Updated 18 April]
Other reporting has him as a devout Catholic, formerly involved with music for a congregation, who had a meltdown in another church on Monday, requiring police to remove him in handcuffs. So, ten-four on the 72 hour psych hold!
He has been charged, but the psych hold will keep him confined through Easter Sunday rather than allowing him to make bail on Thursday. I would imagine that his first opportunity to post bail would be on Monday.
Is there insufficent evidence to deny bail? Or is bail guaranteed in some cases?
Whatever that means nowadays.
From the Bergen Record:
From the Seton Hall University newspaper:
Doug,
This makes good quick thinking tactical sense. However, I think this guy qualifies as a major meshuggah (a technical term). I’m with Aaron and stalling the bail for a while wouldn’t be a bad idea. Of course, I don’t have a clue how you handle this legally.
Regards,
Jim
Yes, and…
I wonder if perhaps he didn’t so much plan to burn the church as he did to burn himself within a church.
Yikes, that crossed my mind as well. We can be thankful that security personnel were on top of their game, preventing him from doing whatever was in his mind.
But you said, “Be a light unto the world…”
Too soon?