AnaxImperator
Regular Member
imported post
I'll try to keep this as short as I can, but I'll probably fail at that :? And due to the opinion of some that figure thisboard can do without the dramatics, and that this incident has no value, stop reading now. I don't want to waste anyone's time. Nothing to see here, move along......
It took a lot for me to tell anyone about it, much less a large online community of strangers, who just happen to have the same intrests & ideals as I. If I go into things in my personal life it's not because I'm digressing; everything I write either relates to the incident itself, or is a direct consequence of the incident in question. Later, afterwe've gotten to the crux of the biscuit, I'm letting everyone know about what happened after I got out of jail. It's ugly, and I made some really poor choices.... but none of it should've happened in the first place. So....
I got out of the Army last year, medically discharged for an injury I obtained in Iraq. I was living in my car because my wife took everything in a bad divorce that same year. The VA's Voc Rehab programgotme into a private tech-school in the Springs so i went there.
Before & after I arrived in the Springs, when asked none of my Army "battles" would let me have a place to s__t, shower, & shave, untilshortly before the first day of classes. So for most of the time before then, I camped it. Which was fun & not-so-fun, but mostly fun. I love Colorado.
But in the first place, why didn't I just get a monthly motel room? Because I had everything I owned packed in a VW Beetle TDI, including my fairly large gun collection. And where are most monthly motels located? Finally a guy from my old unit let me stay in his driveway. I know, how does any of this have to do with OC, but please bear with me.
Fast forward to 29 May 2009. Last day of class. I got to class kinda late because I had to pick up my meds (it ties in), and they were already on a ten-minute break. I was in a huge hurry.
Getting mycertificationsand I had a job locked in at a very prestigious LBS in Aspen, and a place to stay; it's safe to say I was really anxious to get to class. Grabbed my backpack, went in, got my coffee, and sat down to enjoy the starting lesson.
Not ten-minutes later three CS cops come in, loudly ask for me, tell me they "want to talk to me for a second. and we go into a side classroom.
They proceed to ask me if I was talking or thinking about suicide-&-murder, and why i had a gun in my car. With a wad of cops staring at me, hands on whatever (gun,CS, baton)I got pretty anxious. I told thecop doing theasking, "No, No, and f**k no. There's a gun in my car because it's mine, I live in my car, and I have the right to have a gun in it. Go check the law. This is the last day of school, I've been living out of my car for months, and I have a job in Aspen waiting for me. Why would I say something like that?".
Now, Colorado *does* consider vehicles an extension of the home, and does not require a CWP for carry in vehicles.
Anyhow, evidently one of the other students who was talking to me after I first pulled up,saw memove (it took a month for anyone there to spot it?) and spot-check/move the .38S&W which was my car-house gun that I kept in the center console, after I finished digging for my folders. When we were going in he told on me (later I found out he claimed I was methodically loading a pistol & talking about murder/suicide.... no lie).
Instead of one of them going to check (they all have laptops in their crusiers with WiFi or whatever), I was instead frisked, cuffed, told was going to be put in a car"for their safety". And this is where a lack of attention-to-detail got me good.
The arresting officer then asked me for the keys to my car after walking me down the hill to a cruiser.... and it wasn't a question, I had no choice. He radioe'd it up; at which point they then grabbed my backpack, and after coming outside one of them reached in and pulled out my nice 9mm, which I forgot I had put there after shooting up at Rampart the day before.
In my defense, when it's getting late and you head down for fast food and it's going all over the place, the passenger seat was my table, and I didn't want to throw my nice polished steel Tokarev 9mm on the floor. Open backpack, dirty floor, or on my lap. Then it was out-of-site-out-of-mind until a CS cop pulled it out.
Ok. I admit it was totally idiotic to bring a gun into a school... but I honest-to-everything-that-people-pray-to, forgot it was in there; last day, running late, AND my medswere kicking in.
But I wasn't breaking any law to begin with that'd give the police probably cause,even for the 9mm-in-backpack.THAT would've been up to the discretion of the school. And they arrestedme for the .38BEFORE they found my9mm
I wasn't even told I had been arrested until the cop came back to the car to get my key & check the statutes (I saw him do it, I could read the laptop screen), and then ask me for the keys to the car. I told him. And ashe was perusing the statutes ona CCW offence, they found my9mm At this point I was baking in a hot-as-s**t cruiser, cuffed, in pain, and really anxious. When they pulled out the 9mm, i guess they heard methe "F**K!" from the bottom of the hill,and at that point i lost it.Theyeven called an ambulance &EMPs cause I wast totallyincoherent. They evenkeptasking if I was onmeth because my heart-rate wasrocketing. By the time the firetruck, EMP truck and ambulance arrived, I had calmed down a little. Before they put me in the ambulance, I heard an EMP say to one of the officers,"yeah, meth". (I gota $7800 bill for the ambulance ride, the EMP's time, and a short trip to the hospital.)
And sothey stuck me in CDC, got slapped with a $100,000 bond, and there I sat.
Ok, I won't get much into what happened in CDC except thatlegally, I had been charged with an F6 felony, which has a maximum bond of like $3500. And once I was in there, they "give" me my meds because they were narcotics. I desperately told them I need them, because I got f**ked up in Iraq and it's not like they're recreational, and if I stop taking them I'll have withdraws & have seizures. I was told that there was no way Iwas going to get those meds,"so deal with it". So I had a hard withdrawal and a couple seizures in there. At one point I guess I was flopping on the concrete floor, the duty guard just sat at his station, and he didn't get up & call for help until the other inmates were telling him I was having seizures. Eventually I detoxed, but the reason I was on those meds came back with sobriety. I'll say this, those steel racks didn't do *anything* for me at night. I so wanted to take it to trial, but I would've been in there at *least* another six months. Between winning the large fight and my physical well being, well...
I AM NOT GOING TO POSTTHE ARREST REPORT PUBLICLY.
IfanOCDO memberquestions me at my word in this, then I'll be HAPPY to PM them a copy of the arrest report. I'll even throw in the state's case against me too.
I don't know how many statutes that cop broke, but they even went so far as to violate theSecond,Fourth & Eighth Amendments.
If I had taken it to trial, my case would've been thrown out in a heartbeat. My lawyer worked as hard as he could, but the DA therekept dodging him or would deny the motions made to dismiss....... and the judge I was assigned to was going on vacation for a month! But I took a plea. It wasn't really a choice. I NEEDED to get out of there and get taken care of. I supposedly got off easy, but not really.
It shouldn't have even went down like that in the first place.
Before everyone startspointing out that I had parked next to a school loaded with guns; it was a privately-owned tech school, and to adhere to the 2000ft rule, that meant I'd have to walk, up-hill, and I got blasted by an IED in march of 2004 which f**ked up general walking skills, and I was NOT going to walk up that damn hill to get to school. I had asked the school's owner if I could park up front and he totally agreed. And for as many times as he'd walked past my car every morning, I don't know how he didn't notice my .38 poking out, the multiple NRA and 2nd Amd. stickers, or that just about everyone inclass knew my story and that I went shooting up at Rampart sometimes after school. And why I didn't just throw it under a seat or whatever before getting out.... I don't know. It just wasn't high enoughon my brain's list of essential tasks at that time.
Why am I bringing this out now, almost a year later?
Look, this is ahighly embarrassing event in my life, and I was veryreluctant to post it up here. The OCDO community is the only group that I was a participating member of concerning gun, and with EVERY FIBER of me, I want to make it known that a Colorado Springs police-officer arrested me for something that was completely legal. And that the county of El Paso, the 10th District Court District Attorneyof El Paso County, and the Colorado Department of Corrections violated my civil rights.
I'm not seeking any money or reparations from either Colorado Springs, or the State of Colorado....
All I want to happen, is to make sure it never happens to aveteranOR regularcitizen again.
And for me, personally.... what was taken from me, without cause, in front of all of my classmates, atone of the most prestigious tech schools in thebicycle industry. That completely dishonored my name, and destroyedany chance at living my dream along with the dream itself. All for an incompetent cop anda mindless mistake.
In lieu of that, I want my life back.
As an adjunct; the rest of my guns which were entrusted to an active duty soldier who was a friend, have since disappeared. His command knows, but I haven't gotten word from them yet.
So if anyone in the Springs, or a buyer buying from a seller in theSprings,made a private or pawn-shop purchase ofa Bulgarian SLR-95, a once-fired new CETME, a Polish Tokarev TT-33, and one (or both) of my Nagant rifles, after 1 June 09 and 14 Nov 09...... I'dappreciate it if you'd please check with me the serials. The rest of thelot Idon't really have much invested in them, but the SLR-95 was willed to me bymy nowex-father-in-law,just before he died.And that man was my friend.
I hadn't reported them as stolen because Ihad left them with a "trusted" friend in my old unit, and had beenassured they weresafe and would be shipped to my parents.
Note: Thread edited for brevity, and information redundantto the topic at hand removed.
I'll try to keep this as short as I can, but I'll probably fail at that :? And due to the opinion of some that figure thisboard can do without the dramatics, and that this incident has no value, stop reading now. I don't want to waste anyone's time. Nothing to see here, move along......
It took a lot for me to tell anyone about it, much less a large online community of strangers, who just happen to have the same intrests & ideals as I. If I go into things in my personal life it's not because I'm digressing; everything I write either relates to the incident itself, or is a direct consequence of the incident in question. Later, afterwe've gotten to the crux of the biscuit, I'm letting everyone know about what happened after I got out of jail. It's ugly, and I made some really poor choices.... but none of it should've happened in the first place. So....
I got out of the Army last year, medically discharged for an injury I obtained in Iraq. I was living in my car because my wife took everything in a bad divorce that same year. The VA's Voc Rehab programgotme into a private tech-school in the Springs so i went there.
Before & after I arrived in the Springs, when asked none of my Army "battles" would let me have a place to s__t, shower, & shave, untilshortly before the first day of classes. So for most of the time before then, I camped it. Which was fun & not-so-fun, but mostly fun. I love Colorado.
But in the first place, why didn't I just get a monthly motel room? Because I had everything I owned packed in a VW Beetle TDI, including my fairly large gun collection. And where are most monthly motels located? Finally a guy from my old unit let me stay in his driveway. I know, how does any of this have to do with OC, but please bear with me.
Fast forward to 29 May 2009. Last day of class. I got to class kinda late because I had to pick up my meds (it ties in), and they were already on a ten-minute break. I was in a huge hurry.
Getting mycertificationsand I had a job locked in at a very prestigious LBS in Aspen, and a place to stay; it's safe to say I was really anxious to get to class. Grabbed my backpack, went in, got my coffee, and sat down to enjoy the starting lesson.
Not ten-minutes later three CS cops come in, loudly ask for me, tell me they "want to talk to me for a second. and we go into a side classroom.
They proceed to ask me if I was talking or thinking about suicide-&-murder, and why i had a gun in my car. With a wad of cops staring at me, hands on whatever (gun,CS, baton)I got pretty anxious. I told thecop doing theasking, "No, No, and f**k no. There's a gun in my car because it's mine, I live in my car, and I have the right to have a gun in it. Go check the law. This is the last day of school, I've been living out of my car for months, and I have a job in Aspen waiting for me. Why would I say something like that?".
Now, Colorado *does* consider vehicles an extension of the home, and does not require a CWP for carry in vehicles.
Anyhow, evidently one of the other students who was talking to me after I first pulled up,saw memove (it took a month for anyone there to spot it?) and spot-check/move the .38S&W which was my car-house gun that I kept in the center console, after I finished digging for my folders. When we were going in he told on me (later I found out he claimed I was methodically loading a pistol & talking about murder/suicide.... no lie).
Instead of one of them going to check (they all have laptops in their crusiers with WiFi or whatever), I was instead frisked, cuffed, told was going to be put in a car"for their safety". And this is where a lack of attention-to-detail got me good.
The arresting officer then asked me for the keys to my car after walking me down the hill to a cruiser.... and it wasn't a question, I had no choice. He radioe'd it up; at which point they then grabbed my backpack, and after coming outside one of them reached in and pulled out my nice 9mm, which I forgot I had put there after shooting up at Rampart the day before.
In my defense, when it's getting late and you head down for fast food and it's going all over the place, the passenger seat was my table, and I didn't want to throw my nice polished steel Tokarev 9mm on the floor. Open backpack, dirty floor, or on my lap. Then it was out-of-site-out-of-mind until a CS cop pulled it out.
Ok. I admit it was totally idiotic to bring a gun into a school... but I honest-to-everything-that-people-pray-to, forgot it was in there; last day, running late, AND my medswere kicking in.
But I wasn't breaking any law to begin with that'd give the police probably cause,even for the 9mm-in-backpack.THAT would've been up to the discretion of the school. And they arrestedme for the .38BEFORE they found my9mm
I wasn't even told I had been arrested until the cop came back to the car to get my key & check the statutes (I saw him do it, I could read the laptop screen), and then ask me for the keys to the car. I told him. And ashe was perusing the statutes ona CCW offence, they found my9mm At this point I was baking in a hot-as-s**t cruiser, cuffed, in pain, and really anxious. When they pulled out the 9mm, i guess they heard methe "F**K!" from the bottom of the hill,and at that point i lost it.Theyeven called an ambulance &EMPs cause I wast totallyincoherent. They evenkeptasking if I was onmeth because my heart-rate wasrocketing. By the time the firetruck, EMP truck and ambulance arrived, I had calmed down a little. Before they put me in the ambulance, I heard an EMP say to one of the officers,"yeah, meth". (I gota $7800 bill for the ambulance ride, the EMP's time, and a short trip to the hospital.)
And sothey stuck me in CDC, got slapped with a $100,000 bond, and there I sat.
Ok, I won't get much into what happened in CDC except thatlegally, I had been charged with an F6 felony, which has a maximum bond of like $3500. And once I was in there, they "give" me my meds because they were narcotics. I desperately told them I need them, because I got f**ked up in Iraq and it's not like they're recreational, and if I stop taking them I'll have withdraws & have seizures. I was told that there was no way Iwas going to get those meds,"so deal with it". So I had a hard withdrawal and a couple seizures in there. At one point I guess I was flopping on the concrete floor, the duty guard just sat at his station, and he didn't get up & call for help until the other inmates were telling him I was having seizures. Eventually I detoxed, but the reason I was on those meds came back with sobriety. I'll say this, those steel racks didn't do *anything* for me at night. I so wanted to take it to trial, but I would've been in there at *least* another six months. Between winning the large fight and my physical well being, well...
I AM NOT GOING TO POSTTHE ARREST REPORT PUBLICLY.
IfanOCDO memberquestions me at my word in this, then I'll be HAPPY to PM them a copy of the arrest report. I'll even throw in the state's case against me too.
I don't know how many statutes that cop broke, but they even went so far as to violate theSecond,Fourth & Eighth Amendments.
If I had taken it to trial, my case would've been thrown out in a heartbeat. My lawyer worked as hard as he could, but the DA therekept dodging him or would deny the motions made to dismiss....... and the judge I was assigned to was going on vacation for a month! But I took a plea. It wasn't really a choice. I NEEDED to get out of there and get taken care of. I supposedly got off easy, but not really.
It shouldn't have even went down like that in the first place.
Before everyone startspointing out that I had parked next to a school loaded with guns; it was a privately-owned tech school, and to adhere to the 2000ft rule, that meant I'd have to walk, up-hill, and I got blasted by an IED in march of 2004 which f**ked up general walking skills, and I was NOT going to walk up that damn hill to get to school. I had asked the school's owner if I could park up front and he totally agreed. And for as many times as he'd walked past my car every morning, I don't know how he didn't notice my .38 poking out, the multiple NRA and 2nd Amd. stickers, or that just about everyone inclass knew my story and that I went shooting up at Rampart sometimes after school. And why I didn't just throw it under a seat or whatever before getting out.... I don't know. It just wasn't high enoughon my brain's list of essential tasks at that time.
Why am I bringing this out now, almost a year later?
Look, this is ahighly embarrassing event in my life, and I was veryreluctant to post it up here. The OCDO community is the only group that I was a participating member of concerning gun, and with EVERY FIBER of me, I want to make it known that a Colorado Springs police-officer arrested me for something that was completely legal. And that the county of El Paso, the 10th District Court District Attorneyof El Paso County, and the Colorado Department of Corrections violated my civil rights.
I'm not seeking any money or reparations from either Colorado Springs, or the State of Colorado....
All I want to happen, is to make sure it never happens to aveteranOR regularcitizen again.
And for me, personally.... what was taken from me, without cause, in front of all of my classmates, atone of the most prestigious tech schools in thebicycle industry. That completely dishonored my name, and destroyedany chance at living my dream along with the dream itself. All for an incompetent cop anda mindless mistake.
In lieu of that, I want my life back.
As an adjunct; the rest of my guns which were entrusted to an active duty soldier who was a friend, have since disappeared. His command knows, but I haven't gotten word from them yet.
So if anyone in the Springs, or a buyer buying from a seller in theSprings,made a private or pawn-shop purchase ofa Bulgarian SLR-95, a once-fired new CETME, a Polish Tokarev TT-33, and one (or both) of my Nagant rifles, after 1 June 09 and 14 Nov 09...... I'dappreciate it if you'd please check with me the serials. The rest of thelot Idon't really have much invested in them, but the SLR-95 was willed to me bymy nowex-father-in-law,just before he died.And that man was my friend.
I hadn't reported them as stolen because Ihad left them with a "trusted" friend in my old unit, and had beenassured they weresafe and would be shipped to my parents.
Note: Thread edited for brevity, and information redundantto the topic at hand removed.
