MIT Professor gone wild

My reaction to this story was a giant W.T.F. From the Boston Globe:

Ex-professor found guilty of staging own shooting
A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor yesterday was convicted of staging an elaborate hoax -- which included shooting himself in the stomach -- as part of a bizarre attempt to implicate his oldest son in a murder plot against him.

The state's top prosecutor called the actions of John Donovan Sr. on Dec. 16, 2005, a "corruption" of the criminal justice system, while the judge who presided at his trial called the millionaire "bizarre."

The 65-year-old Donovan was convicted of filing a false police report by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman, who sentenced him to two years' probation following a jury-waived trial. "Mr. Donovan's behavior . . . can be described as nothing short of bizarre and premeditated," Fishman said of the Hamilton resident who has been feuding with his adult children for the past several years.

"I had nothing to do with the shooting," Donovan told the Globe after the verdict. He said his conviction "was a complete surprise. An absolute surprise."

Donovan asserted he was targeted by Russian hit men as he sat in the Vassar Street parking lot of his Cambridge business office.

Sitting in the front seat of his minivan, Donovan said, he called police on his cellphone and accused his son James of laundering $180 million, of hiring two Russians to murder him, and of launching a simultaneous attack on his wife, Linda, at their home in Hamilton.

But, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley and testimony at Donovan's trial, Donovan shot himself in the abdomen, shot up his own minivan, kept a spent bullet in his mouth, rearranged a surveillance camera to prevent the taping of his hoax, and laid out the entire plan in a form of shorthand on the dinner menu of the Algonquin Club to which he belonged. Police found the "to-do" list in his pocket.

"He used this false allegation for his own personal agenda against family members . . . in a way that is a total corruption, really, of the way the system should work," Coakley said following the verdict.

Emphasis mine -- what a maroon... Ex-MIT professor trying to frame someone and then leaving his to-do list in his own pocket!?!?! Judge Fishman's decision:

Fishman said because Donovan had no prior convictions and due to his age, he was not going to imprison him. Besides putting Donovan on probation, the judge fined him $625, ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service, and insisted he undergo a psychiatric examination.

At the request of prosecutors, Fishman also ordered Donovan to stay away from his son James and his three daughters and their spouses. The fifth child, John Donovan Jr., is not covered by the stay away order and is not currently aligned with his siblings.

In a joint statement, James and his sisters applauded Fishman's verdict. "His bizarre allegations, including that this case involved "hundreds of millions of dollars," are as fictitious and phony as the one about Russians with rifles," the siblings said. "We are grateful that John Donovan, Sr. has been found guilty of the crime of knowingly filing a false police report."

Through his attorney, John Donovan Jr. declined comment.

"psychiatric examination" indeed -- candidate for the loony-bin if you ask me. Donovan certainly is not an intellectual slouch according to Wikipedia:

John J Donovan (1942 - present) is a former professor of Electrical Engineering and Management at MIT and a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University. Since retiring from academia, he has been a successful serial entrepreneur, founding nearly a dozen technology companies and amassing an estimated fortune of $100 Million. He is currently the CEO of Cambridge Executive Enterprises.

If you want to have some fun, try to find the website of Cambridge Executive Enterprises. I just spent five minutes and have not been able to turn up one link. Lots of links talking about it but nothing direct. A big hat tip to VikingPundit for the link!