Texas Man Refuses to Yield Mother’s Pacemaker

A Texas man charged with removing a pacemaker from his mother’s body with a kitchen knife refused to give authorities the device in exchange for his freedom on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

James Allan Donalson, 59, said he sliced out the pacemaker after his 85-year-old mother, Ann Donalson, died of natural causes on Sunday so he would have evidence in a 10-year dispute involving doctors and the medical device company that provided it, the sheriff’s department said.

Donalson was released on a $5,000 bond on Tuesday. Prosecutors offered to drop a felony charge of evidence tampering if he gave the pacemaker to coroners, but he declined.

“Right now that’s the position,” Harris County prosecutor Leslie LeGrand III said. “If we get the pacemaker back, the case will be dismissed.”

Medical examiners want to scan the device as part of their investigation into the woman’s death.

Donalson could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of evidence tampering.

Yahoo! News [ article ]

Not so nice..