It took a clerk in a small town in northern Minnesota to suggest making Minnesota healthier. Nisswa City Administrator Jenny Max said a longtime police officer retired early due to a disability, which will cost the town $350,000 over 24 years for health insurance until the officer reaches age 65. That will require a 14% property tax levy increase for taxpayers in the town of fewer than 2,000. Jenny Max, who is a vice president for the League of Minnesota Cities, testified Thursday in favor of a bill aimed at stemming the tide of police officers retiring early due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), contributing to a police staffing shortage. The bill would require police officers and firefighters who apply for disability retirement benefits, due to a psychological condition, to first complete up to 32 weeks of treatment with a mental health professional, who would assess whether they’re able to return to work. Their salary would continue with the state Department of Public Safety reimbursing the cost, as long as the employer provides annual wellness training. For most people, PTSD is treatable. The city of Minneapolis has paid out more than $22 million in workers' comp to about 130 officers for PTSD-related claims since the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, according to a Star Tribune review of City Council minutes. That number could rise to 200 officers and a total of $35 million in workers' comp settlements, according to an attorney representing the officers. Think of it from this perspective: Most victims of PTSD are victims of sexual assault. We expect children who have been through horrible trauma to get help and eventually lead productive lives. I am not dismissing the trauma officers experience, but it makes sense to me that we try to get as many healthy, rather than giving up on them and tossing them to the wayside. I applaud the efforts of Jenny Max! Despite what both of the girls in the story below had been through, they were expected to get themselves to school. Unfortunately, we couldn’t guarantee their safety. With that said, I want to make it clear I don’t want officers returning to work before they are ready. In my experience, it is more often the case that officers try to come back too soon. Ashley Pond was a 12-year-old who lived with her mother in Oregon City, Oregon. This poor girl had been sexually abused by her biological father. Her father was initially charged with 12 counts of sexual abuse, but ultimately pled guilty to one count. Reluctant to report her father, Ashley had recanted aspects of her statement. Her father had been released from incarceration when Ashley disappeared. When police interviewed her father, he admitted he had abused Ashley and he regretted his behavior. Her father had an alibi for the time of Ashley’s disappearance. Ashley Pond accused a neighbor, Ward Weaver III, age 39, of abusing her on a trip she took to California with him and his daughter last summer. Weaver denied the claims and he was not charged. Ashley was ostracized by peers for making the allegation. Lori’s mother revealed that her daughter had come to her with the allegation, but she did nothing to try to either prove or disprove the accusation. She stated in an interview, "Nothing came of it, but I was there for her, and I told her I'd be there if she needed to talk about it." Ashley Pond’s family last saw her on January 9, 2002, when she walked to the local bus stop. Ashley got herself off to school. She was a student at Gardiner Middle School and was friends with 13-year-old Miranda Giddis. Ashley and Miranda attended the same school, were in the same dance class and lived in the same apartment complex. A search yielded no signs of Ashley, and while the authorities investigated, Miranda Giddis disappeared, two months later, on March 8, 2002. On March 8, 2002, Miranda Gaddis left to school at 7:30 a.m. Her mother, Michelle Duffey, left for work, and Miranda got herself off to school. At 1:30 p.m., Michelle got a call from her oldest daughter revealing that Miranda was not at school. When Michelle called the school to investigate, she learned that Miranda had missed all her classes that day. Michelle wasted no time calling the police. Miranda had also experienced extensive sexual abuse as a child from a male friend of her mother. Believing the two cases were related, the FBI became involved. Investigators learned there were over 100 convicted sexual offenders living within walking distance of the girls’ apartment complex. The break came on August 13, 2002. A 19-year-old woman wearing nothing, but a blue tarp, waved down a motorist on South Beavercreek Road and got a ride to the nearby Payless Shoes. Around 5:00 pm, the woman in the blue tarp told police that Francis Weaver was her boyfriend, and his father, Ward Weaver III (the same man Ashley Pond had reported had abused her), had first raped her, then tried to kill her. Ward Weaver III’s home was on the path to the bus stop for both Ashley and Miranda. Ward Weaver III was given a polygraph examination and questioined about his involvement in the girls’ disappearance. Weaver denied involvement, but failed the lie detector test. Ward Weaver III had a criminal record and a history of violence. His ex-wives accused him of being abusive, and he had spent 3 years in prison for assaulting his son’s babysitter by striking her in the head with a 12 pound block of cement. In 1995, Ward was arrested for assaulting his partner with a cast-iron skillet, but she was scared to testify against him. Furthermore, Ward’s father, Ward Weaver Jr., was on death row for murdering a couple in 1981. Being a narcissist, Ward Weaver III, did interviews standing on his freshly poured cement, telling reporters he was a suspect in Ashley and Miranda’s disappearance. His son Francis called the police and told them his father had told him he had raped and murdered Ashley and Miranda. In subsequent interviews with his family, law enforcement was able to piece together that Ward Weaver III had abducted the girls on the way to the bus stop and murdered them. As a result, a search warrant was obtained and on August 24, 2002, Miranda Gaddis’s remains were recovered from the property where Ward Weaver and his family lived. The following day, on August 25, 2002. Ashley Pond’s remains were retrieved from a 55-gallon barrel under the concrete slab on his property where he conducted the interviews. *An interesting aside is that Francis Weaver, Ward’s son, and the man who turned Ward in, is now serving a life sentence for murdering two people during a drug deal that went bad in 2014. The three generations of killers are pictured below. The Weaver family history is a deeply troubled and violent. The family patriarch, Ward Weaver Jr. sits on California's Death Row for clubbing a stranded motorist to death in 1981, then kidnapping, raping and strangling the man's fiancée before burying her body in a backyard grave. Ward Jr. buried the victim in his backyard and covered it with concrete. He elicited his son’s help, Ward III, in pouring the concrete. My sympathy goes out to those poor girls, who were attending school every day, trying to make friends and pass classes. Be kind to people, you never know what they’ve been through. And let’s get people help! Thanks for listening, Frank
Tuesday, April 11, 2023, Forensic Psychologist, Frank F. Weber, will be at Fergus Falls Public Library, speaking from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on his forensic work and the writing of True Crime mysteries. Frank will speak about his latest books. Black and Blue is a thrilling mystery based on the murder of a police officer’s 19-year-old fiancé in Minneapolis. The Fergus Falls presentation will be just after the newest release of The Haunted House of Hillman. H2 OH is based on the true story of a search for a criminal that keeps leading back to crimes that occurred at one house. Frank will share the amazing stories of victim survival that led to the resolution of this true crime thriller. Frank will demonstrate a lie detector test (volunteer a friend). Frank will be at the library from 5:30 to 8:00 answer questions on his work, and to sign and sell his books and to discuss the latest forensic tools. The Fergus Falls Library is located at 205 East Hampden, Avenue, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, 56537.
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
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