The Journal of Steffanie Rivers: The Peeing Pastor

*If someone assaulted you or a family member, then claimed he was under the influence of a drug that caused him to commit the assault, would that excuse be enough for you to not press charges against him?

Alicia Beverly of Detroit said she was assaulted during a flight by another passenger. The other passenger claimed he was under the influence of a well known sleep-aid. Beverly said she was asleep on the flight from Las Vegas to Detroit last week when – all of a sudden -she felt a warm sensation! That’s when she woke up to find a man standing over her urinating on her! No it wasn’t R Kelly! I think he’s still locked up!

Beverly said she screamed and everybody turned to see what was going on. The peeing passenger shook off his eggplant, put it back in his pants and zipped up leaving her wet and a puddle of urine in the seat next to her.

There was an off-duty police officer who took control and detained the peeing passenger until they landed hours later. The excuse this guy gave for his pissy behavior? A sleep-aid made him do it. He was sleepwalking – sleep-peeing – to be more accurate. Maybe he thought he was in the bathroom. Turns out this peeing passenger is a well-known pastor in North Carolina. His name wasn’t released. People who know his identity called to get a comment from him or a deacon or somebody. Nobody can get even an Amen out of the church folk about this.

When the plane landed hours later the peeing pastor was turned over to law enforcement on the ground. Beverly, who sat through the rest of the flight soaked in the pastor’s pee – I guess she had no change of clothes available because she had checked her luggage – claims she has not been contacted about the situation by the airline or law enforcement. No cleaning voucher, no apologies, no nothing!

If he has been charged she should know. If she doesn’t know it’s my guess that he wasn’t charged. This incident is enough to make you ask ‘Why me, GOD?’ 

Do you think the pastor who peed on her should be charged with assault? Do you think Ms. Beverly deserves some justice or his ‘sleeping pills made me do it’ defense is sufficient?

That ‘under the influence’ defense didn’t work out for the 90k other people who find themselves charged and convicted of crimes ranging from lewd acts to murder. Of the 2.3 million people locks up in American prisons, four percent of them admitted they were under the influence of a LEGAL drug at the time of their offense. These legal drugs include barbiturates, hallucinogens and stimulants they could have gotten as a prescription or purchased over the counter. Some of these legal drugs that have landed people in prison are found in sleeping pills. 

If you consider sleeping pills to be mild forms of legal pharmaceuticals, you would be wrong. Remember Michael Jackson died from overdosing on a sleep-aid. And he was under the care of a doctor at the time. I’m not a doctor, but here’s what I found out:  Sleep-aids are considered to be sedative hypnotics. At worst they could kill you (remember Michael Jackson), or you could become addicted. If you don’t take them as prescribed or you don’t follow directions on the label the side effects could make you do strange things – even if you do follow directions. It’s called the side effects. 

Nearly half of Americans claim they have trouble sleeping and a bunch of those people use forms of sleeping pills. They are sold under various names. Not sure which one the peeing pastor took. So I won’t mention any names. 

About those side effects: Some of them include dizziness or trouble keeping your balance. So a person could appear drunk. Some cause diarrhea. That would explain why another passenger on another flight defecated on the jet bridge while waiting in line to board a flight. Other side effects are sleep walking, sleep driving and unusual dreams. So the pastor could have been living out a golden shower fetish or dreaming he was in the bathroom at the urinal. 

Taking sleeping pills before doing anything other than going to bed means this peeing pastor did not follow directions on the label. When he failed to do that he became liable for his behavior, however bizarre. Since the incident Beverly said she hasn’t been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. That could lead her to start taking sleeping pills before too long.

Judging from the value society puts on Black women I think that if this happened to a White person who got peed on, which is a form of public humiliation, there would have been charges filed against this peeing pastor. If I was Beverly I would get an attorney to help seek justice.

Our quick-fix society spends too much time and money on mind-altering substances. Most – if not all – of these pharmaceutical company owners could care less about the well-being of their customers. They only care about making money and overcharging you in the process. 

We need to be in our right minds and not sleep walk our way through life. If you plan to win in life you must be informed, alert and engaged. You must be in control of your faculties so no one can take advantage of you and you won’t find yourself behaving in ways that disrespect others or leave you ashamed of yourself. 

Steffanie is a freelance journalist living in Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Email her at [email protected] with your comments, questions and speaking inquiries. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @tcbstef. 

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!