FREE HEART TRANSPLANT FOR FELON by Robert Downey, guest columnist [January 31, 2002]   [HollywoodInvestigator.com]  I am burning mad.  This week California Prison officials announced that one of their inmates received a heart transplant.  Details were sketchy, but later in the day it was announced that the expense to the State of California would be in excess of one million dollars.     Am I the only one outraged and incensed by this?     It's not so much that I've spent forty years of my life chasing these parasites who prey on the ordinary, hard-working, taxpaying citizens.  It's more that we have our governor announcing a large budget deficit for this year.     And I'd really like to know what deserving, ordinary citizen, waiting for a heart transplant, had to be passed over -- and maybe died because of this action!     Did the donor's family know that their heart would be used for a social parasite?  What were their feelings?     The State says they are required by law to provide this service to the convicts.  Where the heck were we when the Legislature slipped this one through?  Can a deserving general citizen get a heart transplant, or any other organ transplant for that matter, at State expense?     I think not.     What can be done about it?  I don't really know.     I do know that my State Representatives will hear from me, loudly and often, in an attempt to curtail such outrageous practices! Copyright © 2002 by Robert E. Downey   Robert E. Downey's 40 years in law enforcement is described in his non-fiction book, Beverly Hills Detective.  He was interviewed by the Hollywood Investigator regarding the Case of the Missing Elvis Pipes. Public Square Archives. Tell Us What YOU Think! -- On Our Message Board! RETURN to The Hollywood Investigator! "Hollywood Investigator" and "HollywoodInvestigator.com" and "Tabloid Witch Award" trademarks are currently unregistered, but pending registration upon need for protection against improper use. The idea of marketing these terms as a commodity is a protected idea under the Lanham Act. 15 U.S.C. s 1114(1) (1994) (defining a trademark infringement claim when the plaintiff has a registered mark); 15 U.S.C. s 1125(a) (1994) (defining an action for unfair competition in the context of trademark infringement when the plaintiff holds an unregistered mark).