From the
Oxford, Mississippi Journal:
Billy S. Dunn of Walnut faces federal accusations he threatened to assault and murder officials with the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dunn, 32, was indicted recently after an Aug. 4 complaint from a Utah woman working as a legal assistant in a law firm, where he was a client.
During their 30-minute telephone conversation, the woman said Dunn became upset that his SSA disability claim had been denied.
She alleged that he threatened to blow up the Corinth SSA office and himself.
Dunn was arrested soon after, and is in custody of the U.S. Marshal Service until completion of a mental evaluation and report, court documents show.
If convicted on the two counts, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
By the way, if you work at Social Security and wonder how often Social Security claimants communicate threats against Social Security to their attorneys, the answer is only very rarely. In 31 years of practice I have had only one. She did not stay a client for long. She had never earned enough money to qualify for benefits on her own account. Her husband had too much income for her to qualify for Supplemental Security Income. There was nothing I could do for her even though she was severely delusional. I reported the threat to the hearing office. I was told that several other people who had also dealt with her in one way or another had already warned them about her.
In the early 1980's, shortly after I became an ALJ, and long before the hearing offices had armed guards and any form of security, a claimant whose case had been assigned to me threatened to kill himself and take someone from the Social Security Administration with him. We arranged for Federal Protective Services to be present at the time of the hearing. I asked that he be frisked, and when the FPS agents refused, I called a U.S. District Court Judge who ordered the agents to do so, and also advised them that I had the authority to order it. When the claimant arrived he was a frightened man who seemed afraid of his own shadow, and did not have a weapon. When I asked him on the record why he made the threat, he responded that he felt it was the only way to get someone from the Agency to pay attention to his case.
ReplyDeleteI don't suggest that we should take lightly threats made against Agency employees. I also had a claimant who secured my home address and telephone number from the university from which we both graduated, and contacted me at home, berating me for my affirming his claim (on a non-disability issue).
And last, but not least, again, during a time when we had little security in the hearing offices, and no armed guards, I was held up at gunpoint and threatened with death while in a stall in the ladies room of the hearing office.
Crime against SSA employees, and judges in particular is a serious issue, and one which our Association President, Randy Frye just addressed at a meeting in Washington, D.C.
While we should not take these threats lightly, we should also remember, that many of the people are mearly crying out to be recognized, asking that someone just pay attention to them, just as my frightened claimant who theatened to kill himself and take someone from SSA with him was.
We as a community, lawyers, judges, and SSA employees need to be vigilant to ferret out those individuals who are simply crying out for help and mean no harm from those who are truly intent on inflicting serious injury.
Field offices have many more disruptive or threatening claimants than Hearings offices simply because more people pass through our offices. In hard times like these, the incidence of threats or actual violence increase. A friend of mine who works in Southern California told me not long ago that many offices have requested additional security guards because of the increase in violent or disruptive incidents. This is a big problem both for the Union and for managers and their regional and national management associations.
ReplyDeleteSome journalists and political commentators are now speculating that the a new Republican majority in Congress would try to shut down the government by cutting off the Executive Branch's funds. If so, I think the resulting increase in threats of violence and disruptive behavior will be significant. Central Office keeps track of all reports of such incidents. Every one is logged and regularly analyzed for any patterns or possible preventive actions managers could take to safeguard their employees. But, that's after the fact. It's impossible to make our facilities completely safe.
Judge Craig's experience shows just how dangerous members of the public can be. Region IX had several such hostage incidents during the 17 years I was a manager. A claimant shot and killed a security guard in a Sacramento District office just a few years ago. But, this goes with the job. And, that's all there is to it. Nancy Ortiz