Alaska Pilot Who Tried to Crash Jetliner After Eating Shrooms Draws Lesser Charges

“Yesterday, a Multnomah County grand jury decided that Captain Joseph Emerson did not attempt to injure anyone, and therefore declined to charge him with the 83 counts of attempted murder originally sought by the state,” Emerson’s lawyers at Levi Merrithew Horst PC said in a statement. “The attempted murder charges were never appropriate in this case because Captain Emerson never intended to hurt another person or put anyone at risk—he just wanted to return home to his wife and children. Simply put: Captain Emerson thought he was in a dream; his actions were taken in a single-minded effort to wake up from that dream and return home to his family.”