Another veteran arrested after calling crisis line

Suicidal veteran's case pits promise, federal law
After calling a crisis line for troubled veterans, Sean Duvall found himself charged with a weapons violation.
By Laurence Hammack
February 12, 2012

Homeless and depressed, Sean Duvall wandered the streets of Blacksburg, each step taking him closer to suicide.

In his backpack he carried a final note to his family and a crude, homemade gun fashioned from a piece of steel pipe, a shotgun shell and a nail rigged as a firing pin. For seven days, he contemplated killing himself.

Then, on the night of June 8, 2011, Duvall turned to the country he had served.

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Duvall called a toll-free crisis line the Department of Veterans Affairs offers as a confidential resource for troubled veterans.

Duvall was looking for help. Instead, he found himself in federal court, charged with possessing a destructive device and three related felonies that could send him to prison for 40 years.

For the government to promise a veteran help through a confidential crisis line, then betray that trust by using his own words to convict him, is more than just unfair, Duvall's attorney argues.

"This is dishonorable," federal public defender Randy Cargill wrote in court papers. "It is wrong; it is unfair; it shocks the conscience."
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