With friends like this...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Thomas P. Budnick says his lawyer's incompetence was to blame for his assault conviction. The funny thing is he was representing himself.

Budnick was charged in 2002 with trying to poison friend Ryan Gauthier by spiking a 40-ounce bottle of beer.

Budnick once filed mining claims on Mars and threatened to sue NASA for trespassing. Such antics should have been enough to make the judge question his competence to waive counsel, his new court-appointed lawyer said. "This was a guy who had just come out of Bridgewater," said Linda Harvey, referring to the state mental hospital.

For more than 20 years, Budnick tried to file and peddle mining claims in such diverse places as George's Bank, the asteroid belt, Mars and the moons of Jupiter. After trying several states without success, he finally persuaded Texas authorities to accept his astral mineral rights claims in 1984.

1. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
2. Hello, what part of just released from the state mental hospital did the judge not hear?
3. Texas give up mineral rights anywhere? I think not. Don’t make us cecede over this.