Replies

Here is the first paragraph of an article from the Baltimore SUN. The full text is available in their archives here:

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BS&p_theme=bs&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_field_label-0=Section&s_dispstring=allfields(Braga)%20AND%20section(*)%20AND%20date(2002)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2002&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22Braga%22)&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

As I did not wish to subscribe to their service I am unable to provide you with the prosecutors name.

No indictment of FBI agent in shooting
Pasadena man mistaken for bank-robbery suspect
'Serious breakdowns' revealed
Anne Arundel grand jury deliberates 20 minutes

Published on: July 3, 2002
Edition: FINAL
Section: TELEGRAPH
Page: 1A
Byline: SUN STAFF

Andrea F. Siegel and Laura Barnhardt

An Anne Arundel County grand jury decided yesterday not to indict an FBI agent who mistook an unarmed Pasadena man for a suspected bank robber and shot him in the face.The grand jury deliberated 20 minutes before declining to indict Special Agent Christopher Braga on charges of first-degree assault, second-degree assault or reckless endangerment in the shooting, county prosecutors said.Braga shot Joseph C. Schultz, 20, in the face with an M-4 rifle March 1. Schultz was riding in a car

Click here for the complete text of article 10

FYI: I have arrested individuals for violations of federal law, and have tesified before both federal grand juries as well as in trial.

Let's adress the "state misdemeanor" question. Let's take a hypothetical. In 1979 you are charged with, and plead guilty to common law assault in Maryland. The maximun penalty is twenty (20) years, even though you may only receive a 1 year sentence even if that one year is probation or time served or thirty days in the county pokey. The (Federal) gun control act of 1968, specificly 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) prohibits a person who "has been convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year". If you can receive a sentence of one year and a day you are a "convicted felon" for purposes of the statute. Although you might not like it, that's the law. Now the question here is this......as an LEO how do you approach this situation? As I told you before I have given the person (providing there is no record of further violent criminal activity)the option of turning the firarm over to a third, non-prohibited person, selling it at a dealer or abandoning it. I dare say The U.S. Attorney's office here in Maryland wouldn't prosecute it anyway.

Now if you are dealing with a person with numerous assault convictions or additional convictions for more serious violent felonies (i.e. attempted murder, murder etc.) I would certainly approach the situation differently.