Tuesday, January 6, 2009

No soup for you!


Wow, this soup I wouldn't want.


Puree of mushroom with a hint of mothballs.


Yum!


Woman sentenced in soup case
-Austin Statesman


On Monday, a judge sentenced an Austin woman to a form of probation and ordered her to undergo mental health treatment for putting mothballs in soup at a Randalls supermarket on Mesa Drive in 2007.

Lea Suzan Sechler, 45, had pleaded guilty to tampering with a consumer product, a second-degree felony.

In a letter to state District Judge Julie Kocurek in October, Dr. Richard Coons, a forensic psychiatrist, wrote that Sechler has heard voices for years and is delusional.

Coons wrote that Sechler "had developed the paranoid delusion that people with malevolent intent were coming onto her property. Voices were threatening her. Then, the voice told her that if she did something dumb like putting something into the soup 'it will reverse.'"

In addition to 10 years of deferred adjudication, Kocurek ordered Sechler to undergo 30 days of inpatient mental health treatment. Kocurek also ordered Sechler to stay away from all Randalls stores unless escorted by an adult.