You are correct to say that I did not turn myself in, strictly speaking. But, I frequently refer to my arrest as "surrendering to the authorities", and sometimes I say that I "turned myself in" only because it's a lot simpler than trying to explain why I was at that Denny's at one in the morning when I knew that I would be arrested.
As for what "we all know": every authority who is familiar with my arrest, from the arresting officer to the Federal prosecutors, and including all the doctors (both for the defense and against) and investigators, have consistently concluded that I knew Shasta would be recognized and I'd likely be arrested if I took her into that Denny's. Shasta herself told the police and FBI that I have warned her I might be arrested if she was recognized. She also told the police that the only reason we were even in Coeur d'Alene was because I was bringing her home and turning myself in.
All of Shasta's statements and my own statements since my arrest in this regard have been collaborated by extensive investigations and hard evidence. In fact, at my most recent competency hearing (January this year) the prosecutor repeatedly referred to the fact that I was turning myself in as evidence to support the government's position that I was behaving "rationally" (and hence, competently). No one, except perhaps a few misinformed news junkies, has ever seriously questioned the fact that I was returning Shasta home and turning myself in at the time I was arrested. The only question has been WHY I was doing it (i.e. turning myself in). But that's an entirely different matter all together. The point here is that there is no indication, beyond unchecked prejudice, that would ever even suggest I was doing anything but turning myself in and surrendering unconditionally to the present authorities of this world. That surrender, existentially, is what this blog is essentially all about. So you'll have to forgive me for referring to it on occasion.
It wouldn't have been any different than if I were arrested in the police station parking lot, or in the hospital emergency room, where I'd planned to take Shasta the next day after visiting the public library in Coeur d'Alene to make one last blog entry before my arrest.
Obviously I never got to make that blog entry. Shasta was hungry, and after I explained the risk of my being arrested at the Denny's restaurant to her she decided she still wanted something to eat. So we went in, and the rest, as they say, is history. I would not have been "caught" when I was if I didn't want to be, and that's simply a fact that some people don't like to admit.
