Health-care plans for jobless man: Rob $1. Get caught.
| GASTONIA, N.C.
A North Carolina man who planned a bank robbery so he could receive the health care he needed in jail said he plans to use his upcoming trial as a forum to illustrate America's health care crisis.
James Richard Verone, 59, wrote in a letter to The Gaston Gazette this week that he plans to use his case to spotlight a U.S. health care system that neglects the poor, the newspaper reported Saturday (http://bit.ly/sSbgg7).
"My mother told me when I was growing up to have a wish list. My wish is to expose a health care system to the American people that is obsolete in its structure and I can do this by using my case," Verone said in his two-page note written in pencil. "I am ready to fight for my right to a fair and just jury trial."
Verone initially planned to represent himself and accept a sentence on a larceny charge so he could receive medical care for several ailments.
The Gastonia man is accused of handing a note demanding $1 to a bank teller in June, then taking a seat in a waiting area until police arrived.
The unemployed truck driver said he could not afford treatment for mounting health problems including a herniated disc and arthritis. Verone outlined his dilemma in a letter to The Gaston Gazette that he mailed before he entered the bank.
"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me. This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar," he wrote. "I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."
He was charged with one count of larceny from a person. He remains in the Gaston County jail on $2,000 bond, which Verone hasn't posted because he wants to receive the medical care.
