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Delafield
Teens allege man pointed gun at them
Leader of closing gun club accused for threat
By Kelly Smith
Posted: July 26, 2010
City of Delafield — One of the leaders of the movement to shut down a local gun club has been accused of using his own high-powered revolver to threaten two 13-year-old girls during a neighborhood incident on June 29.
Police Chief Scott Taubel said the Waukesha County District Attorney's office will decide whether to prosecute Richard "Rick" Simmons on charges that he used a dangerous weapon to endanger the teenagers in the neighborhood near the gun club.
Simmons, in April, presented the plan commission with a detailed outline of alleged violations of the conditional use permit issued by the city to the Hartland Sportsmans Club.
The day after that hearing, a 37-year-old, 17-week pregnant woman sitting on the outdoor dinning patio of nearby restaurant the Delafield Brewhaus was struck by a .45 caliber bullet that, according to police, escaped the gun club's firing range.
The accidental shooting incident, along with the evidence submitted by Simmons and his neighbors, prompted city officials to revoke the gun club's permit.
The teenagers involved in the June 29 incident made no mention of Simmons use of a gun when they spoke to police the night of the incident, according to Taubel.
The girls lodged the complaint the following week after the father of one of the girls asked police to conduct a further investigation.
Lake Country Publications is not identifying the three girls involved in the incident because they are juveniles.
"He was pointing the gun at us and saying something about a Castle Law and he had a right to shoot us … he was holding it like two or three feet from our heads," one of the girls told police.
"He kept swearing at us and yelling. Then we saw the gun in his hand and it was pointed at us," the other girl told police.
Simmons, 65, of Broken Bow Drive in the Cherokee Hills Subdivision, emphatically denied the charges.
"It is all lies. There is no way that I would stand a few feet away from a 13-year-old girl and point a loaded gun at her head," said Simmons, a gun enthusiast who is licensed in several states to carry concealed weapons.
Simmons said the gun never left its holster. He said he pointed the gun while it was in the holster over the heads of "some dark objects that were crouching in the woods."
He said he placed the gun and holster back on his belt as soon as he realized the "dark objects" were two teenagers.
According to police, Simmons and his wife Marlene were returning home from dinner when they noticed three unidentified individuals carrying a large object running across their property.
Marlene Simmons called 9-1-1 and retrieved from the truck of their car a .32 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver.
She told police she loaded the gun, returned it to the holster and gave the gun in the holster to her husband.
Simmons told Lake Country Publications she and her husband are disabled senior citizens who have been concerned about recent vandalism in the neighborhood and reports of a series of burglaries in Lake Country.
Her husband, with gun in holster, began following the three fleeing individuals toward woods near the back of their property.
Simmons said two of the three teenagers emerged from the woods after he had yelled a warning and a command at them.
The third girl ran away in an opposite direction.
Police arrived as Marline Simmons was watching over the girls while Richard Simmons went into the house to establish if anything had been stolen or damaged.
The girls told police that they had left a birthday party and were cutting across the Simmon's property on their way to another girl's house.
"When they pulled into the driveway, he yelled 'What are you doing?' We got scared so we ran away in the woods," one of the girls said in the police report.
The three had picked up a road barrier as they were crossing the property and dropped it when they ran to the woods.
Delafield
Teens allege man pointed gun at them
Leader of closing gun club accused for threat
By Kelly Smith
Posted: July 26, 2010
City of Delafield — One of the leaders of the movement to shut down a local gun club has been accused of using his own high-powered revolver to threaten two 13-year-old girls during a neighborhood incident on June 29.
Police Chief Scott Taubel said the Waukesha County District Attorney's office will decide whether to prosecute Richard "Rick" Simmons on charges that he used a dangerous weapon to endanger the teenagers in the neighborhood near the gun club.
Simmons, in April, presented the plan commission with a detailed outline of alleged violations of the conditional use permit issued by the city to the Hartland Sportsmans Club.
The day after that hearing, a 37-year-old, 17-week pregnant woman sitting on the outdoor dinning patio of nearby restaurant the Delafield Brewhaus was struck by a .45 caliber bullet that, according to police, escaped the gun club's firing range.
The accidental shooting incident, along with the evidence submitted by Simmons and his neighbors, prompted city officials to revoke the gun club's permit.
The teenagers involved in the June 29 incident made no mention of Simmons use of a gun when they spoke to police the night of the incident, according to Taubel.
The girls lodged the complaint the following week after the father of one of the girls asked police to conduct a further investigation.
Lake Country Publications is not identifying the three girls involved in the incident because they are juveniles.
"He was pointing the gun at us and saying something about a Castle Law and he had a right to shoot us … he was holding it like two or three feet from our heads," one of the girls told police.
"He kept swearing at us and yelling. Then we saw the gun in his hand and it was pointed at us," the other girl told police.
Simmons, 65, of Broken Bow Drive in the Cherokee Hills Subdivision, emphatically denied the charges.
"It is all lies. There is no way that I would stand a few feet away from a 13-year-old girl and point a loaded gun at her head," said Simmons, a gun enthusiast who is licensed in several states to carry concealed weapons.
Simmons said the gun never left its holster. He said he pointed the gun while it was in the holster over the heads of "some dark objects that were crouching in the woods."
He said he placed the gun and holster back on his belt as soon as he realized the "dark objects" were two teenagers.
According to police, Simmons and his wife Marlene were returning home from dinner when they noticed three unidentified individuals carrying a large object running across their property.
Marlene Simmons called 9-1-1 and retrieved from the truck of their car a .32 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver.
She told police she loaded the gun, returned it to the holster and gave the gun in the holster to her husband.
Simmons told Lake Country Publications she and her husband are disabled senior citizens who have been concerned about recent vandalism in the neighborhood and reports of a series of burglaries in Lake Country.
Her husband, with gun in holster, began following the three fleeing individuals toward woods near the back of their property.
Simmons said two of the three teenagers emerged from the woods after he had yelled a warning and a command at them.
The third girl ran away in an opposite direction.
Police arrived as Marline Simmons was watching over the girls while Richard Simmons went into the house to establish if anything had been stolen or damaged.
The girls told police that they had left a birthday party and were cutting across the Simmon's property on their way to another girl's house.
"When they pulled into the driveway, he yelled 'What are you doing?' We got scared so we ran away in the woods," one of the girls said in the police report.
The three had picked up a road barrier as they were crossing the property and dropped it when they ran to the woods.