Remember the Hakkens? Man Who Fled to Cuba with Children Declared Insane.

Last spring, Joshua and Sharyn
Hakken made national news when, after losing custody of their
children in Louisiana, they subsequently kidnapped them in Tampa,
Florida, and attempted to flee to Cuba in a boat. The country
returned them and the couple was arrested and charged with a host
of
kidnapping and abuse claims that could have landed them life in
prison.

Part of the reason the story made national news at the time was
because there was a lot of confusing reporting about why the
Hakkens were doing what they were doing. They were described as
anti-government, though as former Reason Editor Mike Riggs
researched
at the time, the case seemed to have started with an arrest
over marijuana possession.

Eventually the media moved on to other matters, but Joshua is
back in the news again today. He’s been declared insane and will
likely be sent to a mental hospital. Here’s the
Tampa Bay Times:

Doctors have determined that Joshua Hakken, the Tampa engineer
whose anti-government paranoia drove him to abduct his children and
flee to Cuba, is insane, making it likely he will be treated in a
mental hospital before standing trial.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe said in a hearing
Wednesday that he plans to determine within six weeks where to send
Joshua Hakken, 36, for mental health treatment. Defendants who are
incompetent to stand trial because of mental illness are ordinarily
treated until they have recovered enough acuity to understand
courtroom proceedings.

The fate of Hakken’s wife and co-defendant is less clear. It
appears the prosecution of Sharyn Hakken will continue, although
the couple’s trial date, previously set for next week, has been
postponed. Her attorney has said she was an unwitting victim who
got bullied into the kidnapping scheme by an abusive husband.

So we’re back to anti-government paranoia, but this time the
evidence released by the prosecution takes it further than the
vague information we were getting last year. Hakken is described is
being part of the chemtrail, government-weather-control conspiracy
crowd (if you’re unfamiliar with this group, just Google
“HAARP”).

And so this saga comes to an awkward end, but with a frankly
weird epilogue from Times reporter Peter Jamison. In an
explanatory video posted with his story, Jamison describes these
conspiracies as originating from the far right and casually
associated them with the Tea Party. He is not incorrect to point
out that there are Tea Party members that are openly protesting
chemtrails, as a quick online search will uncover. But a quick
online search with the right keywords will also find some libertarians
and
progressives also buying in to chemtrail concerns. There’s no
information out there that suggests that chemtrail and weather
control conspiracy theories are in any way part of the Tea Party
movement, so it’s an odd connection for Jamison to try to make.