Accidental Felons [Perfect Paperback]

Daniel Horne (Author, Illustrator), HelpPublish.com (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Maricopa County is a place where first-time DUI offenders can find themselves facing thirty years in prison, where parents can find themselves woken up in the middle of the night, their bedroom filled with armed men and drawn guns, their home being invaded after the County Attorney suspects their child of viewing porn. The sheriff s challenger in the last election woke up one morning to find himself defending allegations that he had raped his mother. And, the prior County Attorney, a Conservative Republican, ran television ads asking people to vote for the Democratic challenger of the existing County Attorney.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas are the two most controversial lawmen in the United States today. They both reside in Maricopa County, Arizona, where their respective departments are fraught with lawsuits and investigations of wrongdoing all at taxpayer expense. Yet they remain defiant that their ultra-rightwing form of Western justice is what the American people want.

This story takes you through the heart-wrenching experience of one suburban family s tragic encounter with Maricopa County justice soon after having their second baby. It shows how the Maricopa County Prosecutor abuses mandatory minimum sentencing to manufacture violent criminals out of ordinary citizens, and it exposes the dangerous truth about Sheriff Arpaio s infamous Tent City found nowhere else.

About the Author

Daniel Horne spent his childhood growing up in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. Serving in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1971, Dan was stationed at naval bases in Patuxent River, Maryland; Jacksonville, Florida; and Keflavik, Iceland.

Over the next thirty years, Dan attended trade school and numerous colleges, earning college degrees in engineering, business, and a Master s Degree in Finance. Daniel retired in 1999 due to several mysterious bouts of unconsciousness that doctors could not explain. He moved to Sedona, Arizona to regain his health.

In Sedona, Dan met Dr. Robert (Bob) Eggert (known as the Sage of Sedona ) and the two became fast friends. Dr. Eggert is one of the most respected economists in the United States, being the founder of the world-famous Blue Chip Economic Indicators Newsletter, the Phoenix Economics Club, the Phoenix Economics Roundtable, and the NAU-Economic Outlook Conference. Dan spent two years mentoring under Bob to glean from his mastery of economics. Bob in turn was best man at Dan s wedding when Dan married his wife Rebeckah in 2001.

That same year, Dan and Rebeckah moved to Maricopa County, the Phoenix Metropolitan area, so he could resume his career. Today, Dan and Rebeckah live with their two daughters. When Dan had the accident that resulted in this book, he was working as the Chief Financial Officer at a defense contractor in Mesa, Arizona.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Fat Bellied Laughing Buddha; 1st edition (June 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982063407
• ISBN-13: 978-0982063408
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #541,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So true that it gives you chills!, July 10, 2009

By	David M. Naughton (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Accidental Felons (Perfect Paperback)

This book is amazing!!! I couldn't put it down, but the human body needs sleep. Dan was most gracious to mention me in his book as "Soldier". When things like this happen to you in life you think.. "I will just do it and be done"! But Dan was able to capture the REAL essence of it, and make you realize it's more powerful and corrupt then what you see with the naked eye. I have been to war, and seen many scary things! But, nothing has scared me more than this book. It makes you realize how important life, love, family, and friend's are in one's life because it can be taken away in a heart beat!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing true story, June 22, 2009

By	Linda S. Thompson "Host of AuthorsWebTV.com" (Phoenix Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Accidental Felons (Perfect Paperback)

Daniel Horne has written a book that absolutely everyone in the country should read. He tells about his experiences in the Maricopa County, Arizona jail system. Sheriff Joe's love of the media could propel this book to great heights. However, it's the County Attorney (Andrew Thomas) that everyone living in Marizopa County (or even thinking of visiting) should know about. His manipulation of the laws of the state are truly amazing and horrifying at the same time. Until the political climate of Arizona takes a dramatic change for the better, anyone considering relocating to Arizona needs to do their homework.
As host of AuthorsWebTV.com, I've had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Daniel. How this mild-mannered gentleman survived the intolerable conditions and abuse, as offered in this book, is truly amazing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The danger of the abuse of power disguised as justice, August 27, 2009

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accidental Felons (Perfect Paperback)

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (8/09)

"What happened? I asked.

"You crossed the road sir and hit another car head on. Sir, have you been drinking?"

Daniel Horne and his wife Becky were getting settled in their new home in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona, where Dan was employed as chief financial officer by a defense contractor in nearby Mesa.

Unexplained blackouts, insomnia, an extended happy hour, and an automobile accident are just the beginning of the problems which faced Daniel Horne as he tangled with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas of Maricopa County, Arizona. "Accidental Felons" is Horne's story.

Charged with drunk driving and aggravated assault Dan was considered a violent felon in Maricopa County. After months of waiting and after paying thousands of dollars in attorney's fees Dan was given the option of plea bargaining or pleading guilty to the one charge of drunk a driving. If he chose to plea bargain the aggravated assault charge would be dropped. He would then be under the one year mandatory minimum sentence law where he would be locked up in the county jail. His other option was a jury trial with the possibility of getting a prison sentence of up to thirty years if the jury found him guilty.

Even after learning he was being charged with a felony and the horrible conditions of Sheriff Arpaio's notorious Tent City, Dan chose to plea bargain for the sake of his young family. He relates the experiences of acclimating to life in jail: sleep deprivation, being exhausted to the point of mental and physical collapse, drained to a level where his brain would not function and results of disregarded illness. He tells the stories of fellow inmates, of the injustice of their sentences, of the abuse and mistreatment of the detention officers, and of exposure to the extremes of the hot and cold temperatures with the minimum of consideration for the prisoner.

Dan describes how inhumane treatment of the prisoner, a politically manufactured violence, and a normal human response are used to create public fear to create a fiction for the need of more laws and to reinforce the importance of harsher sentencing guidelines. He maintains that by incarcerating large numbers of victims through mandated minimum sentence laws, unemployment statistics are reduced which mislead the true state of the economy.

Horne writes with intensity and passion as he tells of strained family and marriage relationships as families and loved ones of prisoners become the victims and suffer the most. They are the ones who become "accidental felons."

"Accidental Felons" by Daniel Horne is written as a wake-up call to Americans. Horne passionately informs the reader of the abuse within the criminal justice system. The book is a call for the reader to join in an effort to break the chains of injustice and to expose political exploitation and the unfair practices which undermine our individual freedom.