Posted on 03/22/2014 1:11:25 PM PDT by markomalley
Eighteen year-old Jordan Wiser is training to be a firefighter. He’s a certified emergency vehicle operator who works as a first responder when he’s not attending high school. And, after just spending 13 days in jail, he’s now facing felony charges for weapons possession.
The weapon? A pocketknife. It was in his EMT vest, and he uses it to cut through seatbelts when he’s practicing saving lives.
How did this happen? According to The Huffington Post, administrators at Ashtabula County Technical and Career Campus in Jefferson, Ohio, where Wiser is enrolled, approached the student after someone informed them about videos Wiser had uploaded to YouTube. The videos include reviews of video games and merchandise, demonstrations on home-defense tactics, and an interview with a local police officer. Officials searched Wiser’s car in the school parking lot and found an assortment of items, including a pocketknife, a stun gun, and two Airsoft pellet guns. Wiser said the Airsoft guns were in his trunk because he planned to participate in the sport after school. The stun gun was locked in his glove compartment for self-defense. The pocketknife was inside his EMT medical vest.
For the possession of the pocketknife alone, police arrested and jailed Wiser for 13 days for conveying a weapon onto school grounds—a felony under Ohio law.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Heritage has written about teenagers victimized by weapons ordinances. Last year, Cobb County, Georgia police arrested and charged 17-year-old Cody Chitwood with a felony for bringing weapons into a school zone. The weapons were fishing knives, and they were in his truck, in a tackle box.
At first glance, such weapons ordinances sound sensible. But the criminal law contains the harshest punishments the state metes out, and it should be applied in a proportionate manner. Simply put, it’s absurd to ruin a kid’s life over a pocketknife that he uses to save lives.
Jordan has already been expelled from high school and technical school. The Army terminated his participation in its Future Soldiers program, pending a not guilty verdict or the charges being dropped without prejudice. Wiser realizes he’s in dire straits: “I’m 18 years old, and this is going to ruin my entire life.”
You’d think that Wiser has already endured enough. But there’s no sign that the state will drop the charges—quite the contrary, in fact. “We charge [people] with everything that we feel they are guilty of, and in this case, he is guilty of a felony,” said Ashtabula County assistant prosecutor Harold Specht in an unapologetic statement. He added, “I know that there’s a load of people out here that just think we’re the devil because we’re allegedly ruining this young kid’s life, and that’s not the case at all.”
Perhaps additional facts will come to light. But, as it stands, this incident looks like a shameful exercise of prosecutorial discretion—something of which residents of Ashtabula County should take note come November, when the county’s prosecutor, Nicholas Iarocci, is up for re-election. Unless Iarocci’s office is saving some damning revelation for Wiser’s trial, the charges against this young man are unjustified, and should be dropped before they cause him any more suffering.
Unless there is some Code of Conduct, or School Handbook that informs students that being on the grounds is implied consent. Didn’t think of it until minutes after I posted my first comment. Provided, this kid was issued a handbook, that could be the grounds on which “officials” could search his vehicle.
At the very least, the a-hole prosecutor should be pressured into accepting a plea to a lesser misdemeanor. Judges have some influence over lawyers, especially those who desire long and profitable careers, and any judge worth his robe would use this as an occasion to exert some influence over this prosecutor.
I don't think you're the devil, Mr. Prosecutor. But I do think you're a "power pervert" getting your jollies.
I sent this to my Firefighter/EMT/Paramedic brother in TX. Hopefully, he and his brothers will rise up.
Unfortunately, the consent-for-search, high-school, parking permit was likely signed and accepted without comment by this teen’s parents.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, add an aterisk that the high school must obtain your permission or obtain a 4th-Amendment-probable-cause warrant to search your child’s vehicle on school property.
Demand a jury trial. A jury can decide not to follow a bad law and vote not guilty. Or if only one refused to vote guilty he could be let off when the prosecutor dose not refill.
There isn't much associated with laws or management regarding schools these days that is "sensible."
Perfect description of today's communists liberal teachers. Few exceptions.
Unfortunately, he and his parents likely signed the high school’s parking-permit application which consents to a search of the vehicle under any circumstances. See my post up-thread.
Liberals have no common sense and it’s part of the liberal disease in which all rational thought is removed from host.
Only two options I see:
Quarantine them in Europe where they will assimilate and become fodder for the Muslim take over there.
Only other option is to eradicate them here.
Even if he wins, he and his family will likely be bankrupted by the legal fees.
He is being overcharged so that he will be under overwhelming pressure to accept a plea bargain, which will very negatively impact his future.
This whole incident is a "lesson" to conservatives: say anything that Lib officials dislike, and your life will be ended.
Regardless of the consent to search, there still must be some reasonable basis to conduct such a search. Having someone know that he uploaded video on U tube, presumably not taken on campus, seems to me to be a far stretch of that basis. Now if someone approached the school officials and said I saw he had a knife or I heard him say he had a knife with him, that easily meets the standards and frankly they would not need a consent form. Without knowing all the facts that never come out in a short story, I would be unwise to bet the farm on my answer. However, if there are none but what is reported, I would bet the judge, not wanting to get in the middle of a disaster, would rule the search unreasonable just to derail this case. Bad cases make bad law.
If I were this kid and got this thrown out, I would make it my life’s work to ensure that prosecutor had me to contend with every time he ran for office. I’d hound him to the point of exhaustion just to make a point. Of course, i would do it within the law. 13 days in jail already, this is a travesty!
I have to agree.
Bush was far too quiet about the excesses of the left, and refused to slap them down when they attacked him and the American way of life. His passive approach to domestic governing (other than the detested Patriot Act) is one of the most unforgivable things about his tenure.
He effectively enabled the crap we see now by not using his time to reverse the leftist gains during Clintoon, and also not purging ALL 'toon appointees from government.
This is how tryants create patriots. My heart goes out to young man.
Jury Nullification is an awesome idea...
Ten years ago, But now I think we are in a sit-u where the liberal application of Tar and Feathers and Rope is the only Rx that will get us back on track...
November 4th, 2008 is when it became painfully obvious but I think the country went nuts well before that day. It was a gradual thing, no one can name a date of certainty, it just built up over time, the assassination of JFK probably set off the real runup to full blown craziness. At some point long past I realized that people who would have been committed to mental institutions in the fifties were starting to take over the government and people who would have been held up as role models back then were being ridiculed as if they were the crazy ones. At this point everything is downside up and bass ackwards. If you want to be scornfully dismissed as a real nutcase now just say something that actually makes sense.
The despicable prosecutor, living off tax dollars, in this case is a DemocRAT:
http://www.starbeacon.com/local/x338555371/Nick-Iarocci-to-be-acting-Ashtabula-County-prosecutor
“Nick Iarocci will take over as Ashtabula County prosecutor Dec. 1, until the Democratic Central Committee appoints a permanent replacement for Ashtabula County Prosecutor Tom Sartini....”
Iarocci is simply another DemocRAT out to destroy yet another good citizen who believes in the 2nd amendment and may likely be a Republican. This is going on across our nation.
I’ve carried a pocketknife almost every day since I was 10 years old.
Take it to a jury. I don’t think a jury would convict.
Ridiculous
Pretty safe to do it that way. It gets too complicated if you bring reasonable judgment into play. Follow the rules and you get to keep your job and your tenure.
Too bad the idea of tar and feathering and being run out of town on a rail isn't still in vogue. If that were part of these bureaucrats (that call themselves teachers) risk assessment, things would change.
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