Opera singer charged in Mar-a-Lago car chase has 'history of mental illness,' attorney says

The opera singer who crashed her SUV through two security checkpoints at Mar-a-Lago, drawing gunfire from Secret Service, is mentally ill and wasn’t taking her medications before she led police on a chase, according to her attorney. Hannah Roemhild, 30, has a “well-documented history of mental illness,” her attorney David Roth told a judge Monday, according to the Palm Beach Post. “Unfortunately, she is suffering from severe mental illness,” he said, declining to specify the illness. “It’s a very sad, unfortunate situation.” He also said she had been off her medications, the Associated Press reported. The Connecticut woman refused to appear before the judge Saturday and had her bail hearing rescheduled for Monday.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper encountered Roemhild at The Breakers resort Friday morning when the officer responded to a call about a woman dancing on top of a car. Roemhild refused to speak with the responding trooper, who smashed in the window of her rental SUV as she fled, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. Police said Roemhild drove the vehicle toward Mar-a-Lago, crashing through two security checkpoints around the perimeter of President Trump’s resort. Trump and his family were not in Palm Beach at the time but arrived later in the day. Bradshaw said officers with Secret Service and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office fired shots at the vehicle, but Roemhild was able to flee the scene. She was later found at a hotel, where she was arrested. Authorities said there was no indication she knew she was heading toward Mar-a-Lago during the chase.

Roemhild, who has no criminal history, will remain jailed without bail on charges of assaulting an officer, fleeing police, and resisting arrest. Roth said Roemhild’s family wanted to thank law enforcement involved in the incident for “being incredibly professional and considerate of her mental health status.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/opera-singer-charged-in-mar-a-lago-car-chase-has-history-of-mental-illness-attorney-says

Judicial Watch: Eight Iowa Counties Have Total Registration Rates Larger than Eligible Voter Population – at Least 18,658 Extra Names on Iowa Voting Rolls

Judicial Watch announced that eight Iowa counties have more voter registrations than their eligible voting-age population. According to Judicial Watch’s analysis of data released by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in 2019 and the most recent U.S. Census Bureau’s five-year American Community Survey, eight Iowa counties are on the list of 378 counties nationwide that have more voter registrations than citizens living there who are old enough to vote, i.e., counties where registration rates exceed 100%. These 378 counties combined had about 2.5 million registrations over the 100%-registered mark. In Iowa, there are at least 18,658 “extra names” on the voting rolls in the eight counties at issue.

In addition to the eight listed above, Polk County, Iowa’s largest, has an unusually high registration rate of 95.9% of total eligible citizen voting-age population.“Dirty voting rolls can mean dirty elections and Iowa need to undertake a serious effort to address its voting rolls,”said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.Judicial Watch is the national leader in enforcing the National Voters Registration Act, which requires states to take reasonable steps to clean their voting rolls.In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a massive voter roll clean up that resulted from a Judicial Watch settlement of a federal lawsuit with Ohio.California also settled a similar lawsuit with Judicial Watch that last year began the process of removing up to 1.5 million “inactive”''' names from Los Angeles County voting rolls. Kentucky also began a cleanup of up to 250,00 names last year after it entered into a consent decree to end another Judicial Watch lawsuit. Judicial Watch Attorney Robert Popper is the director of Judicial Watch’s Election Integrity initiative.