Groton mayoral candidate Aaron Grant has some legal problems beyond his violation of Defense Department policy in using his Marine uniform to promote his campaign. On Friday, Grant was found guilty of willful damage of property worth less than $400, a Class 2 misdemeanor under SDCL 22-34-1:
According to the above document retrieved yesterday from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System Public Access Record Search, Grant entered a plea of nolo contendre* against a charge filed in Brown County on January 6 relating to an unspecified incident that occurred on or before December 20, 2021. On that date, Grant posted a cash bond of $2,500.
The court fined Grant $500 plus $78.50 in court costs and $555.50 for his court-appointed attorney*; he has until May 20 to pay. The court sentenced Grant to 30 days in jail but suspended 29 of those days and credited one day served. The court appears to be offering Grant a suspended imposition of sentence, meaning the state will wipe this unpleasantness from Grant’s record, if he can satisfy six conditions of a six-month* probation:
- No violations of local, state, or federal law.
- Pay all fines, court costs, and court-appointed lawyer fees.
- Obtain a mental health evaluation within 30 days and follow any recommendations from the evaluator.
- Stay compliant with medications.
- Contact the sheriff’s office before entering the Brown County Courthouse
- Possess no firearms or other weapons.
Condition #5 should raise some alarm bells. It appears that the property Grant damaged was in the Brown County Courthouse. Grant entered a public building and intentionally vandalized public property. Now Grant wants to enter Groton’s city hall as its mayor, even though he is forbidden from entering the courthouse in Aberdeen without alerting the sheriff to his approach.
Conditions #3 and #4, pertaining to mental health and medication, should make us wonder if we’re dealing with just another petty criminal or someone with an illness that warrants sympathy and treatment. But even if Grant is merely ill, if the court has deemed it necessary that Grant prove his ability to manage his illness and apparent violent inclinations for six months before allowing him to carry weapons and enter the courthouse unannounced, voters might want to consider asking Grant to complete his probation before allowing Grant to carry the responsibilities of elected office.
*Correction 2022.03.24 15:44 CDT: The Brown County Clerk of Court says the plea was entered incorrectly as “No Plea Entered” on the original court record. I originally reported that incorrect plea based on the document retrieved from the UJS PARS system; the Brown County Clerk of Courts has confirmed that Grant plead no contest and provided the updated court record now shown above, and I have corrected this story show the updated document and to reflect that actual plea. Additionally, the $555.50 attorney fee was not shown on the original court record but was included on the record provided by the Clerk of Courts on March 24.
Additionally, I misread the probation date. Grant’s probation ends in September this year; he must keep his nose clean, his meds up, and his hands off guns for six months before the court will wipe this courthouse attack off his record.
His PTSD has caught up with him publicly. One tour of duty is more than plenty to try to recover from. It would appear, (been there done that), from the charges against him, that his combat time has rendered him unfit for duty as a peacetime mayor. That is something that until his medications are balanced (not gonna happen for some years), he will continue to be volatile and unpredictable. His family should take away his guns NOW for their own safety.
The VA has excellent resources for dealing with his PTSD, not only for him, but for his family members that are caught up in his trauma. Clearly the VA is aware as indicated by the medications he may be taking.
I feel much sorrow for his plight and wish him well. Above all else, he is a brother in arms that has done duty not many have done. Not electable at this time though.
he can do the job…just another GQP zombie…normal need not apply…trumpers have infected the entire system…we are doomed…doomed, I tell you…
Note: the sovereign citizen availed himself of the socialist, tax-payer funded, court appointed public defender.
Grant wrote on Facebook in April 2020 that he has struggled with alcoholism, depression, and PTSD since his honorable discharge from the Marines in 2004.
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but his problems with booze, depression and PTSD aren’t excuses. I would bet there is a fourth of the nation that falls into that same category. I just sat through Judge Jackson’s hearings, where Lindsey Graham got the vapors and showed his hind end because some crook got a small reduction in sentence. Well, it’s time this guy got the Lindsey Graham treatment. He should do the full sentence. Period. No excuses. And they should look at more charges, too. The guy is obviously a danger to the community.
Cory writes:
No civil government has ever correctly defined mental health, and no one should ever be coerced to use psychotropic drugs, especially by civil government.
He also wrote that he’s subjected himself to pseudoscientific EMDR psychotherapy. The combined effects of chronic drunkenness and EMDR have probably harmed him more than the trauma inflicted during his military service.
I wish him well.
Mr. Grant reads like a sovereign citizen: someone who pledges no allegiance to the rule of law and often clings to a self-created reality or mythology instead. It’s more common than even critical thinkers are aware.
Mr. Evans is righter than right. You don’t want to subject your self to those desensitizing and disturbing images. It’s pseudo-science…not the sort of activities #4Science that grudznick, Dr. McT, and the few other real scientists on this here blog would cotton to.
Lar, do you remember when Mr. Klaudt went the way of that Sovereign insanerness? You and I Iaughed and laughed that night, whilst you sipped that Scotch grudznick gave you to mark a significant birthday.
I have sympathy for combat veterans with PTSD….grew up in a town with many combat infantrymen and Marines from WWII, who received no treatment and suffered badly from alcoholism and depression…He needs long term, intensive therapy and an avoidance of stress. He is not a person who needs to have the everyday criticism one receives in elective office… His behavior is evidence of his irrationality.
You just have to thank Noem for attracting the best of America.
Kurt, the APA conditionally recommends EMDR psychotherapy. It does not recommend taking a hammer to public election equipment.
Correction 2022.03.24 15:44 CDT: The Brown County Clerk of Court says the plea was entered incorrectly as “No Plea Entered” on the original court record. I originally reported that incorrect plea; The Brown County Clerk of Courts has confirmed that Grant plead no contest, and I have corrected this story to reflect that actual plea.
I’d written:
Cory writes:
If it did recommend the hammer, would you trust the recommendation? The American Psychological Association is at least waist-deep in pseudoscience.
My opinion on whatever therapy he gets is that it include a healthy swing of the hammer he used to destroy election equipment to the cranium, thus to knock some sense into this guy.
So, psychology and numbers are kinda my thing. Here’s what I can tell you: the efficacy of EMDR in the treatment PTSD has shown mixed results in literature. If Cory gives me the thumbs up, I can share some links to peer reviewed studies. The main conclusions I’ve drawn for lit review and (someone else’s) meta-analysis is that EMDR could be effective in treating trauma when psychological comorbidities exists and in certain cases as an “add-on” to more traditional methods. However, the research indicates the findings are preliminary and suggests greater study is needed. Given that, I think it’s hard to say much about EMDR one way or another past “maybe.”
As to this man as a person: I’m a vet with multiple deployments, and it’s both easy for me to understand AND hard for me to stomach his behavior. He has clearly been hurt and I feel for him, but my sympathy ends when you hurt others or destroy their stuff. I hope he gets the help he needs and grifters stop preying on people like him.
As to this man as a candidate: lol, you are joking, right?
He lost and it wasn’t close, so it seems Groton is doing ok.
Dicta, do please submit those informative links. If any get caught in the filter, email me, and I’ll clear them.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01668/full
Conclusion: EMDR therapy could be a useful psychotherapy to treat trauma-associated symptoms in patients with comorbid psychiatric disorders. Preliminary evidence also suggests that EMDR therapy might be useful to improve psychotic or affective symptoms and could be an add-on treatment in chronic pain conditions.
https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/3/3/117.abstract
Conclusion: Suggest future research based on questions raised about PTSD and its treatment with EMDR when the AIP model is compared to other information-based theories of PTSD.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01458/full
Conclusion: The research questions addressed in this study were: (1) does EMDR therapy administered twice daily ameliorate veterans’ PTSD symptoms; (2) does EMDR therapy administered twice daily provide equivalent outcome results as EMDR therapy administered weekly for 18–20 sessions; and, (3) does the treatment outcome persist? When comparing the pretreatment, post-treatment, and follow-up IES-R scores, two repeated measures ANOVA noted in the intensive daily group the difference on the three-points were significant (F = 105.21, p < 0.001). Post hoc evaluation of the group differences revealed a significant difference between pre- and post-test IES-R scores. The difference in scores between post-test and follow-up scores were not significant indicating the significant improvement if PTSD symptoms as measured by the IES-R at the end of the 10-day treatment. The twice daily treatment was found to be significant in ameliorating veterans’ PTSD symptoms.
EMDR therapy provided approximately equal outcome results when reviewing treatment results of daily and weekly treatment. At post-test the intensive daily treatment mean changed from 53.20 to 17.40 at post-test and 15.60 at follow-up indicating the treatment change at post-test was maintained at the 1-year evaluation. The weekly treatment changed from the IES-R mean of 51.80 at pre-test to 16.07 at post-test and 17.73 at 1 year follow-up. With a variance of 1.027 between the groups at pre-test, the between group variance at post-test was 1.330. Follow-up 1 year later noted a variance of 2.130.
The third question, does the treatment persist, was demonstrated at 1 year follow-up. Intensive daily treatment group improved from an IES-R mean of 17.40 at post-test to a mean score of 15.60 at 1 year follow-up. The weekly treatment group IES-R mean increased by 1.66 between post-treatment and 1 year follow-up. It can be stated, based on these findings that both treatments maintained their outcome significance at 1 year follow-up.
The intensive daily format and the weekly treatment approach both offer benefits for participating veterans. The intensive program can be formatted for inpatient treatment in VA medical centers. Likewise, active duty personnel can be temporarily transferred to facilities with seasoned EMDR clinicians who can complete treatment within two weeks. The intensive treatment allows any reactivity that might surface to be immediately addressed. Additionally, the intensive program provides momentum in the treatment. Little time is needed for getting caught up with events between sessions since only a few hours elapse between sessions. The time saved due to this momentum can be applied to further treatment work.
For some participants the weekly EMDR treatment provides a better fit for their time. They have difficulty getting away for a two-week period due to work or family responsibilities and finances. Weekly appointments allow for the emotional support of family and friends between sessions. The weekly treatment format provides time for psychological triggers to be identified between sessions and added to the treatment plan. This format also allows more time for trust and rapport to develop in the clinical relationship.
The intensive daily10-day treatment program offers many possibilities for treatment centers. However, the likelihood of obtaining the same outcomes in other treatment settings is yet to be determined. Based on the findings of this study, additional research using EMDR therapy in an intensive successive-days process is warranted.
An additional application of EMDR therapy in military personnel that merits further investigation is the treatment of phantom limb pain. An RCT (Rostaminejad et al., 2017) and multiple case studies (e.g., Russell, 2008; de Roos et al., 2010) have reported the elimination of phantom limb pain subsequent to EMDR treatment. As previously mentioned, the AIP model posits that the basis of PTSD and other disorders is the inappropriate storage of unprocessed memories (Shapiro, 2001, 2018). These memories retain the emotions, physical sensations, and beliefs that occurred at the time of the event. Phantom limb pain can resolve when the memory of the initial injury is targeted. Given the number of veterans suffering from this condition, additional RCTs on this pathology are recommended.
Awesome! It worked! Thanks for working with me, Cory.