Dear Friends of Angel,
Angel had his day in court today. His attorney and the prosecutors had worked out an agreement, which the judge accepted. Here are the results.
The judge overseeing the case ordered the police to give Angel's guns back, but he must register the handguns in compliance with Michigan law (euphemistically called a "safety inspection", but it is clearly registration, a law adopted in the 20s to keep guns out of the hands of Blacks). The only charges on the table were four misdemeanor counts of failure to present a handgun for a safety inspection. The theoried charge discussed in the media and on the Net about "menacing" and threats was not advanced by prosecutors, because there was no substance to the theoried charge. Police and prosecutors figured this out after looking at the facts and evidence.
Angel will be on non-reporting probation on the failure to register charges for a year and a half. Angel will have on his record forever four misdemeanor violations of failure to present his handguns for "safety inspection". Angel must perform three days of community service, which will hold him in Michigan for almost a month (because they are court-scheduled days).
I've been saying for too long now that the attorneys have insisted on silence from anyone having inside information about this situation, because release of such information could very well have torpedoed the deal Angel's attorney had worked out with the prosecutors. Frankly, the prosecutors were not anxious to go to trial on this case, and Angel is too clearly a clean and good guy to be able to spin him as some dangerous nut case.
Now is probably time for me to confess a bit of an ulterior motive in all of this. Angel plans to move to Montana where can live under what legal scholar Dave Kopel calls the freest gun laws in the World (see Dave's Foreword to my book, Gun Laws of Montana), where he can go Prairie Dog hunting with my son Ty and myself, and where he will undertake the needful task of recruiting scads of members for MSSA. According to the plan, recruiting membership for MSSA will be Angel's vocation for the indefinite future. I suspect you may be hearing a pitch from Angel (an MSSA Member since 2003) to join MSSA (hey, a lot of our members don't live in Montana).
So, stay tuned for more info about how this all happened to Angel. In the meantime, if you haven't donated to Angel's legal defense, but wish to do so, there is information about this at:
http://www.marbut.com/angel
There IS a deficit of about $10,000 to pay the legal expenses incurred so far.
Thanks loads to all of you for your tolerance of the imposed silence, for your now-justified faith in Angel, for your support letters, and for your donations to Angel's legal defense.
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com
Friday, April 07, 2006
Update in re Angel
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3 comments:
And so now I see...
And Thank God all is OK.
Let me get this straight here. The police said in the news media that he "threatened", and the media outlet said his girlfriend says he "threatened to kill" -- but the police are GIVING ALL HIS GUNS BACK, and there is a DROPPED CHARGE on the alleged "threat"?
Sounds to me like there is some serious deceit on the part of either the girlfriend, or the police, or both. (And that means someone had an axe to grind. Which means wilful intent, and harsher sentences or higher damage awards. You cannot pass this all off as accidental. Only a fool would believe that.) It can't be any other way. So who is the liar here? The girl? Or the cops? It is one or the other. This isn't rocket science. Either the girl is a liar and slanderer. Or the police are liars and slanderers.
Whichever it is, when do they get charged for the crimes they committed against Angel Shamaya? If he has to pay for his crimes, why don't those who committed crimes against him have to pay? Especially if the crimes were committed by the same girl who turned him in over his not registering his guns. If she is the deceiver in this case, and if these law enforcement officials are honest and honorable (or not wanting to bear a huge potential liability), she needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Get that same media outlet to look into this thing. They won't like being used for false purposes. Either that or Angel needs to sue the police for defaming him in the media to force them to either confess to lying about him and fork over some cash and an apology, or go after the one who lied to them. If the police were used out of malice and it can be proven, that is serious nasty business, and I do mean felony conviction nasty. If the police don't charge people for false police reports that do this much damage to a man's reputation, their liability is much worse when he goes after them. He needs to file against them before they can charge the girl (assuming she lied to them and they can prove it). If she lied to them, they look so bad on this already I'm betting they are preparing charges against her. I'd pitch in for a civil suit if one develops, just for the entertainment value alone.
My two cents...
Amen anon. but I would bet the plea agreement precludes a lawsuit. Deepest pocket wins again.
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