Paragraph six reads: "The man, who suffers acute depression requiring medication, asked police to take him to the hospital. The officer did so, but as soon as they arrived at Royal Inland Hospital, Pizzati became aggressive and belligerent.

SSRI Stories Note: The Physicians Desk Reference states that antidepressants can cause a craving for alcohol and can cause alcohol abuse. Also, the liver cannot metabolize the antidepressant and the alcohol simultaneously, thus leading to higher levels of both alcohol and the antidepressant in the human body.

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20100716/KAMLOOPS0101/307169991/-1/KAMLOOPS01/minister-who-threatened-mountie-off-to-jail

Minister who threatened Mountie off to jail

July 16,2010

By ROBERT KOOPMANS
Daily News Staff Reporter

A Pentecostal minister who said he wanted to shoot the RCMP officer who showed up to help him was jailed 120 days Thursday.

Brendon Pizzati, 43, pleaded guilty in provincial court. He was arrested on July 9 after a chain of events that started with him calling police because he had no place to stay the night.

Pizzati had just been released from prison. When an officer arrived to talk with him, he said the men’s hostel was full and he had no place to go. He broke down and started crying.

Defence lawyer Renzo Caron told the court his client’s trouble started more than a year ago, after the end of his marriage started him drinking.

Pizzati has a master’s degree in theology and was an ordained minister in Ontario. He has five children who he has not seen in more than a year. He declared bankruptcy and sees himself as “a broken man,” Caron said.

The man, who suffers acute depression requiring medication, asked police to take him to the hospital. The officer did so, but as soon as they arrived at Royal Inland Hospital, Pizzati became aggressive and belligerent.

He had been drinking a violation of his probation and the officer decided then to take the man into custody.

On the way to the detachment, Pizzati said he would shoot the officer if he could get a gun, adding he had memorized the officer’s face and would one day hunt him down “to put a bullet in his head.”

The man has accumulated a considerable criminal record in the last several months, largely for not obeying court orders, the judge was told.

Pizzati told the court he recognizes his behaviour was unacceptable, especially since he called for help. He urged the judge not to send him to jail, however, as doing so will only hurt his recovery.

Judge Stella Frame said jail may not help his mental health and addiction problems, but it might help him understand the importance of following the terms of his probation order.

She gave the man credit for the time he has already served since his arrest.

rkoopmans@kamloopsnews.ca