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Prank Caller Gets Prison Sentence
Jermmie Marquis Davis Made Prank Calls To National Runaway Switchboard

Posted: Friday, February 11, 2011

Dallas -- A mentally ill suburban Dallas man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for making thousands of prank phone calls to the National Runaway Switchboard in Illinois. Twenty-four-year-old Jermmie Marquis Davis told a federal judge Thursday that he had not been taking medication for his schizophrenia when he made up to 1,000 calls a month from 2005 through 2008.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Davis said he would dial the hotline and then make a three-way call to a phone sex line, hang up and immediately dial again. The judge ordered Davis to repay $88,738 to Sprint, the cell phone carrier he used to make the calls on various accounts. Davis apologized in court. He said he is now taking his medicine and has changed.

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Sounds to me like the person needs medical help, not a prison sentence. That's only going to make him worse. He'll probably get out and hurt someone. Schizophrenics are often a danger to themselves and others. Bad call on the judge's part. I think he may regret it deeply some day.

My mother's best friend had a daughter who was schizophrenic. She lived with them as an adult. She was fine on her medication, but without it, she would become violent to the point that her parents locked their bedroom door at night. The meds dull schizophrenic's emotions, which is why they often don't take them. She ended up committing suicide at the age of 35. It was very sad. Her parents did everything they could to help her, and ended up broken-hearted.

:yeahthat

I agree. I think it's a bad idea to put him in prison. He needs medical help. I'm sure it's also going to be hard for him to come up with the money he has to pay for the fine.

I have a friend and co-worker who takes meds for schizophrenia. She's very smart and thinks very lucidly, so you wouldn't know she was in need of medication. But she gets hallucinations and hears voices without them.

I think the judge made a bad decision here. This man needs psychiatric help.

i think the coat did injustice with him,this not the way to treat your citizen,he just need medical help and you sent him to jail