Another Waste Of Gov't Resources...

[blondboinsd]

So Stupid....

Army has deserter arrested decade later
Woman says she twice tried to surrender but was refused
By Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
2:00 a.m. February 17, 2009

Giselle Flynn spoke to a visitor at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee yesterday. The Army lists her as a deserter and asked El Cajon police to arrest her. - Earnie Grafton / Union-Tribune
OVERVIEW
Background: Giselle Flynn of El Cajon deserted the Army in 1999 to take care of her two young children. She later tried to turn herself in at local Navy bases but was rejected both times.

What's changing: Acting on a request from the Army, El Cajon police arrested Flynn on Saturday at her apartment.

The future: Flynn will remain at the Las Colinas jail until the Army takes custody of her. It's unclear when that will happen, and Flynn and her family said they have been unable to get an explanation from Army officials.

EAST COUNTY — Giselle Flynn was working as a bus driver and raising her children, which was all she ever wanted to do, but Army officials had other plans.

They had Flynn arrested Saturday at her apartment in El Cajon after listing her as a deserter for the past decade. Flynn went absent without leave because she felt compelled to stay home and take care of her young son and daughter, and she said the Army rejected her two attempts to surrender herself over the years.

“I'm just really nerve-racked,” Flynn, 37, said during a jailhouse interview yesterday.

“I've never been no place like this,” said Flynn, who doesn't have an attorney and hasn't heard from the Army. “I'm depressed.”

El Cajon police officers took Flynn into custody about 1 a.m. at her home on North Cuyamaca Street and booked her into the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee. She will remain there until the Army assumes custody.

The officers had received a request from the Army's warrants division, said El Cajon police Sgt. Fenton Sue. It's unclear when that request came in.

Army officials did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Flynn knew the warrant was still active. A year ago, she said, the Social Security Administration sent a letter saying she could not be listed as the payee on benefit checks her daughter receives because of the warrant.

The Army also knew Flynn's address, she said, because it mailed her a re-enlistment letter two years ago.

“She called me (Sunday). She was upset and scared about her kids,” said Tanya Pellegrino, who lives in the same apartment complex. “She's been through so much. She's a good friend, a caring mother, and her kids are respectful of others and are both good students.”

Flynn's saga began in November 1998, when she enlisted in the Army after spending years on welfare and living in a shelter for battered women. Her marriage was failing, and she hoped the military would provide her with job training and a better financial future for her family, according to a 1999 story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

She left her son and daughter, then ages 4 and 8, with a close friend before entering boot camp in South Carolina. After completing basic training, Flynn enrolled in a communications class at Fort Gordon, Ga.

In February 1999, she flew home and found that her son, Vidal, was suffering from ringworm, anemia and pneumonia.

Army officials granted Flynn 10 days of emergency leave, but Vidal's recuperation in the hospital took longer than expected, so the Army told Flynn to check in regularly.

Flynn eventually sought permission to bring her children to Fort Gordon but was told trainees are not allowed to have children on base. Her family members wouldn't take the youngsters, Flynn said, so Army officials instructed her to put the children in foster care.

She declined, and in March 1999, the Army declared her AWOL. It later designated her as a deserter.

Flynn twice tried to turn herself in at local Navy installations because the Army has no base in the area. Army officials asked the Navy to tell her to go home both times, naval authorities said at the time.

Hours after her Saturday arrest, Flynn called her mother, Dresdene White. The two have spoken every day since, and Flynn sobs each time.

“She's lived in the same place for many years. You can't say she's been hiding,” said White, an Atlanta resident.

White hasn't received an explanation from the Army.

“We've called around, but you know how that is,” she said. “It's like a maze. No one whom we've talked to has had any information.”

Flynn grew up in San Diego with her mother, a stepbrother and a stepsister.

She married Vidal's father in 1993 and divorced him four years later. She married Reginald Mitchell two years ago.

Flynn injured her back while working as a welder trainee at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego. A spokesman for the company confirmed that she worked there from 2003 to 2006. Flynn remained on disability until last year, when she started to turn her life around with the bus-driving job.

Her daughter, Jackie, is away at camp and doesn't know about the arrest. Vidal didn't see police take his mother away because he was sleeping.

“The life I have is pretty much messed up now,” Flynn said. “I'm going to lose my job, this is going to traumatize my kids, and no one can tell me how long I'm going to be in (jail).”

[Dannyell]

They backed her into a corner pretty much...Now they can treat her however they want ...BS if u ask me