psmartin
Regular Member
imported post
For all the McCarthy supporters, and the naysayers of "it couldn't happen to me"
I was in Henrico General District court today appearing as a witness, and the case before mine was about a guy in court for "providing false information" on a firearms background-check form:
Here's the information as I have it (I was unable to electronically record, but it was on the 9:30 docket for Court #1, the last name of the defendant started with a C)
Facts as I have them:
1) Man was brought up on charges of providing "false information" on his background check form(the Va State Police were witnesses for the Commonwealth)
2) The reason for denial was "involuntary commitment"
3) The man's attorney readily admitted the man was "voluntarily committed", although not "involuntarily commited" and had all the commitment paperwork to show it, although the judge said: "I can't make a decision on voluntary vs involuntary in this case, this must be brought before another court"<very paraphrased>
4) The reason cited for the commitment was: The man was taking prescription painkillers<legally> for an injuryand began having hallucinations, and checked himself into a local center.
5) The paperwork that the state was arguing was an "involuntary commitment" was not properly filled out, not signed by the defendant, and noted he did not have counsel during the commitment process, and the defense attorney argued<very successfully> that it was NOT in fact an involuntary commitment... Although many thousands of dollars will have to be spent working on that government-snafu
6) The defendant plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge with 12 months suspended and community service on a related charge, but it appears his lawyer "got him off" on the serious charge of "lying on the form"
So there ya have it, an average joe<very clean cut, he was able to hire this attorney who KNEW HIS STUFF> gets railroaded by the system.
Who knows how many years it will take to have his rights restored.
I was a fence-sitter on the whole mental-health issue before today, but then I witnessed the hell-bent angle a prosecutor is willing to make to score one for the home-team.
For all the McCarthy supporters, and the naysayers of "it couldn't happen to me"
I was in Henrico General District court today appearing as a witness, and the case before mine was about a guy in court for "providing false information" on a firearms background-check form:
Here's the information as I have it (I was unable to electronically record, but it was on the 9:30 docket for Court #1, the last name of the defendant started with a C)
Facts as I have them:
1) Man was brought up on charges of providing "false information" on his background check form(the Va State Police were witnesses for the Commonwealth)
2) The reason for denial was "involuntary commitment"
3) The man's attorney readily admitted the man was "voluntarily committed", although not "involuntarily commited" and had all the commitment paperwork to show it, although the judge said: "I can't make a decision on voluntary vs involuntary in this case, this must be brought before another court"<very paraphrased>
4) The reason cited for the commitment was: The man was taking prescription painkillers<legally> for an injuryand began having hallucinations, and checked himself into a local center.
5) The paperwork that the state was arguing was an "involuntary commitment" was not properly filled out, not signed by the defendant, and noted he did not have counsel during the commitment process, and the defense attorney argued<very successfully> that it was NOT in fact an involuntary commitment... Although many thousands of dollars will have to be spent working on that government-snafu
6) The defendant plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge with 12 months suspended and community service on a related charge, but it appears his lawyer "got him off" on the serious charge of "lying on the form"
So there ya have it, an average joe<very clean cut, he was able to hire this attorney who KNEW HIS STUFF> gets railroaded by the system.
Who knows how many years it will take to have his rights restored.
I was a fence-sitter on the whole mental-health issue before today, but then I witnessed the hell-bent angle a prosecutor is willing to make to score one for the home-team.