During a roadside bombing in Iraq, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Mark Beyers lost both an arm and a leg.
During a night out from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Cpl. Beyers, age 27, took his wife, Denise, to dinner in Bethesda, Md., July 22.
As they left the restaurant, five men approached them and asked for a cigarette.
Denise Beyers told the Buffalo News that they gave the men cigarettes.
But then, these five creatures grabbed her purse. They kicked her, and then kicked her amputee husband to the ground.
The five made off with $500, which had just been wired to them by a relative.
His family is planning a fund-raiser to replace what was stolen from him by these five immensely cowardly and despicable scumbags.
Let us hope that if anyone in Silver Spring witnessed – or heard about – this treatment of an Army veteran amputee, they will immediately and in good conscience contact the police.
All of us should be concerned that anyone – much less five – could be so utterly depraved.
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Associated Press reports a non-violent but considerably appalling news development, which the Minneapolis Star Tribune headlined: "Man says he has right to have sex with children."
A man accused of sexually assaulting nine boys with physical or mental disabilities told a judge that having sex with children is a sacred ritual protected by civil rights laws.
Phillip Distasio of Rocky River, a Cleveland suburb, represented himself at his pretrial hearing in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. He is charged with 74 counts including rape, pandering obscenity to minors and corrupting another with drugs.
"I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years," Distasio said in court Wednesday. "The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms."
Distasio says he is the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries and that some of his congregants are among the victims in this case. He is accused of molesting two disabled boys he tutored at his home and raping seven autistic boys at a Cleveland school for special-needs students where he was a teacher's aide. All but one of the victims were under 13.
"A conviction on rape counts involving any of the eight younger boys would mean an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole eligibility," Assistant County Prosecutor Brendan Sheehan said.
Distasio tried unsuccessfully in June to fire his court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Shaughnessy, because Shaughnessy wouldn't pursue a religious freedom defense.
"Not all pedophilia is bad, and sex with boys can be healthy," Distasio said. "It's an argument I'm willing to make, but my attorney is not."