imported post
olypendrew wrote:
Could you please elaborate on how a traffic violation was the basis for you losing your firearms rights? This makes no sense to me unless you were accused of vehicle assault or something like that.
Re: the original post, if you are charged with a crime, and cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Often, he or she will be better than anyone in the area who you could hire.
Don't you have to meet a minimum income or something to get a court-appointed attorney? Since I own a house, I think that alone would disqualify me.
Hereare the basics of my story. I was planning on telling this later...
I was riding my motorcycle with a friend last summer, to a safe rider course. We were just outside a town with a large motorcycle rally (over 500 bikes registered at the event alone). A Fish and Wildlife officer chased two riders at a high speed for several miles. He lost sight of the riders for up to 2 minutes, at a place with many turnoffs, and came upon us. We were riding under the speed limit. WhenI saw him in my mirror, before he had been following me for any distance, I signalled, slowed,and pulled over immediately. He passed me and said over the microphone "follow me". We accelerated and caught up to my friend. My friend's mirrors are blocked by his elbows, so he rode on without seeing the cop. Once we passed the road we were headed to, he looked back and saw the cop. He pulled over immediately. The cop mentioned that Eluding charges might be added to my friend (only) because he failed to pull over when the cop first got behind him. The cop placed us under arrest for Reckless Driving, impounded our bikes, and took us to jail.
According to the police report, the cop described us as wearing dark suits. I was riding in the rear and wore a mostly white and red suit. He also described the reckless manner in which the other bikes rode, unlike the way we ride. The cop stated that my friend failed to pull over for "1/4 to 1/2 mile". The cop also stated in the following interview "I don't know how fast I was going, but he was going over 100". After arraignment, the DA made us a "deal": plead guilty to Reckless charges andpay fines and spend time in jail, or you will each get raised charges of felony eluding. We were given less than 24 hours to decide, but it was clear we were not taking charges that we were not guilty of and they had no evidence.
Now, we are both facing charges of felony Eluding. It used to sound like an easy case to win, since all evidence suggested that the cop was likely not originally chasing us. However, the cop was recently interviewed by my lawyer and he is now adding "new" information to the case (outright lies, actually) to support the eluding charges, even for me!! I'm the guy who FOLLOWED the cop to the stop and I have eluding charges.
The judge ordered many restrictions (can't travel, etc., etc.) including the one that we cannot be in possession of any firearms. He even held this ruling after it was presented to him that the TWOhigher courts had set case law that this was not allowed for people who were not arrested for a violent crime. The prosecutor would not even read the case law! I just got my firearms rights back.
I am already inches away from losing my house over this current court case and people in this thread are telling me to "sack up". I'm not done paying for this one. Another concurrent court case would pretty much seal the deal on losing my house. I thought I would get more support from this group to carry the way I want to carry, rather than pressure to carry the way you want me to carry.
