Miss Fidget.com

If you are angry enough and resourceful enough I reckon ANYTHING can be a weapon. Upon closer reading it seems home invasion, cutting phone lines and verbal threats were the main offense with the throwing of 2 pickles, a furious flourish.

Pickle assault no laughing matter. Buchanan man gets probation for a year for encounter with former friends.
October 30. 2007 | DEBRA HAIGHT | www.southbendtribune.com

NILES — Sometimes a pickle can be used as a weapon. While that might sound funny, it was anything but for a Buchanan man sentenced in Berrien Trial Court on Monday.

Bobby Lee Bolen, 35, of Main Street in Buchanan, was sentenced to 54 days in jail with credit for 54 days already served, placed on one-year of probation and ordered to pay $1,150 in fines and costs as well as $270 in restitution for third offense home invasion.

The incident occurred Aug. 20 at a home on Moccasin Street in Buchanan. Two counts involving Bolen’s assaults on Jody Lee and J.W. Romanski III were dismissed as was a charge of cutting or interfering with phone lines.

According to police reports, the three were friends before Bolen broke into Lee’s home, got into an argument and threw two large pickles at them.

“If this is not the silliest case I’ve seen in this courtroom, it certainly is in the top 10,” Judge Scott Schofield said Monday. “The fact that it’s silly doesn’t mean that it’s not serious.

“To invade someone’s home and assault them is serious and the person who does that deserves to be punished. This action is deserving of time in jail, but no more time than what has already been served.”

Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Travis called the whole situation “completely needless.” “The victims and Bolen were friends and they got into this situation over pickles,” she said.

“Mr. Bolen is in need of anger management so maybe he can get to the bottom of why he would commit a felony over pickles,” she said. “This is a wake-up call for what he has done in the past and how he can change his actions in the future.”

Defense attorney Robert Lutz said he thought alcohol was at the root of Bolen’s problems as evidenced by the fact that he would get into these problems because of pickles. Schofield agreed and ordered a substance abuse evaluation for Bolen as part of his probation.