This is my mother’s written description of events in this extraordinary and extralegal set of events. I’ve made minor edits for privacy:
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After 2:00 PM on Wednesday, April 21, I returned to my home in Provo driving a red Toyota truck belonging to my oldest son, D———-. As I turned onto [my street] I noticed at least three armed men wearing vests going through the neighbors yards proceeding in the direction of my house. They were armed with rifles and I felt concern that I might be proceeding into danger. I slowed and they urgently gestured me to drive on. Moments later I approached my home and noticed a man on my front porch, which is shielded from the street by an American flag that concealed the presence of another man. My first thought was fear that the man on my porch might be the object of the hunt. I momentarily reconsidered my intent to park as usual by turning into the driveway of my neighbor across the street and reversing into my driveway, then I saw that there were two men on my porch and they were dressed in uniforms. I parked and one of the men approached me and asked if Richard lived in the house.

I said yes and [they said] they represented the FBI and wanted to talk to him. I let them into the house by unlocking the back door that lets onto the carport. They waited in the dining area while I went into his bedroom and woke him up. I told him the FBI wanted to talk to him and he said ‘Oh Crap’. At least one of the men had followed me into the hallway of the bedroom and peered into the room where a rifle sat on one of the book cases within easy grasp. Richard made no attempt to grab a weapon or resist or flee. He got up and followed me into the living room where there were now at least five men including one who represented himself as a representative of the FBI. I asked him why they were there as they surrounded Richard. He stood apart talking to me as Richard stood with the other men. He said Richard had sent a message to the FBI that said if an army of FBI agents came for him he would resist with his private militia and kill them and eat their souls.

Seeing that Richard seemed to be okay, I went out to the truck for a period less than a minute to retrieve my groceries. When I returned I saw Richard standing in the midst of the men with his head bent down and his hands secured behind his back in hand cuffs. I went up to him and put my arms around him and tried to comfort him. Then I turned to the men and asked them if they planned to take me and others into custody for ideas that they found unpleasant. The man who represented himself as the authority on the scene said that they didn’t pay attention to blogs or e-mails but only to direct threats against the FBI.

They said an ambulance was on the way but it wouldn’t be needed. I said I wouldn’t pay for it and the man in charge assured me that the government would take care of any cost. Richard collapsed to the floor and I assumed he must be experiencing cataplexy, a state of loss of muscle tone caused by extreme emotional states, or possibly just being passive resistant. One of the policeman asked me why he fell and I said he might be passive resistant. He said “What’s that?”. Which I found extraordinary. Passive resistance is a common reaction to police action used by demonstrators and I was surprised that a trained policeman would not know what it was.

The police said he needed shoes so I went in search of some and brought them into the front room. I couldn’t get them on his feet because his feet were rigid. They decided to hustle him out to a police car and grabbed him any which way. It was then I saw the officer who had been standing behind him rolling up the wires of a tazer device and suspected he had fallen as a result of being tazered. I was never actually shown a badge or any form of ID and with so many guns displayed, I wasn’t asking questions.

The following day I called the Provo City Police and inquired where my son was being kept. The detective in charge of the abduction told me he was in the Utah Valley Regional Health Center in the ‘Behavioral Medicine’ unit. That evening during visiting hours I accompanied my son D——– and my son-in-law, J———— to the unit where they were able to witness the six wounds that proved Richard’s assertion that he had been tazered three times.

Since then I have called at almost every opportunity and until leaving on a scheduled trip to accompany my daughter, N——–, a psychiatrist, to New York City where she will continue her work in the field of psycho pharmacology. Richard’s questions about effects of the suggested medication were not answered by the personnel at the hospital but by his sister. She has worked in a hospital in New York where she gained special insight into the problems of using psychiatric wards to warehouse those whom the police do not have the legal means to handle.

I provided information on Richard’s childhood, youth and adult mental health history at the request of someone who called himself Royce Hull and who represented himself as someone associated with the hospital where Richard is being held.

Tags: Writing