Posted on 08/20/2011 7:28:28 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Although cleared of shooting charges in a 2007 dispute at a Key Largo trailer resort, a Hialeah man still faces a felony count of carrying the handgun he used to defend himself.
Jorge Correa, 44, must return for a November trial on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, Monroe County Circuit Court Luis Garcia ruled Friday at the Plantation Key courthouse. Garcia denied a motion by Correa's attorneys to have the concealed-weapon charge dismissed.
Dora Sanchez, Correa's wife, said Friday's ruling took the couple by surprise. "This has become a political case," she said. "We'll keep going until everybody finds out what happened."
In April, Garcia dismissed counts against Correa of attempted murder and discharging a firearm after a violent fracas four years ago at Key Largo Ocean Resort, a gated RV park near mile marker 95.
Garcia said in his ruling that Florida's so-called Stand your Ground Law rendered Correa "immune from prosecution" on those two counts since he fired shots while being attacked.
Correa and his family believed all charges had been dismissed, including the count of carrying a concealed weapon. So did court reporters, according to a court docket from the April hearing.
"Court records at that point indicate a complete dismissal," Correa attorney Richard Hersch said.
But Assistant State Attorney Mark Wilson said Friday that while Correa legally fired a .32-caliber handgun at an attacker, "that does not decriminalize the prior action" of carrying the weapon while riding his bicycle through the community.
April's hearing focused on the two shooting charges, not the gun count, Wilson said Friday. "I don't believe the issue [of carrying a concealed weapon] was raised," the prosecutor said. "My recollection agrees with that of the state," Garcia said.
(Excerpt) Read more at keysnet.com ...
Should be easy to beat depending on the information he gave the police.
If you have the gun in a case then its not concealed. Only if you have the gun on your person is it considered concealed.
For example you can have a gun in the closed glove box or in a zippered case under the seat.
Politics is why this guy is charged.
makes you kinda wonder who is putting the pressure on the court.
Impeach the commie judge and give him 24 hours to leave America and sail for North Korea.
BULLCRAP!
This is straight up judicial incompetence! Florida’s concealed carry laws are irrelevant here. The story says he was bicycling while armed. Florida law states you may carry a weapon concealed “by means of private conveyence” without any need for a permit. The law makes no distinction between a pick-up truck, and a skateboard. Furthermore, the right to carry a weapon in your vehicle LONG predates any laws relating to CCW permit.
The only limitation to the above statute is the weapon can not be “immediately accessable,” as in sitting on the seat next to you.
The judge is doubling down to save face.
I am a Monroe County resident, and I’d like to be on the jury.
;-)
For a papertyger, you certainly have long legal fangs!
Thanks for a most interesting perspective on this case.
A letter to the editor might not be a bad idea. This judge is obviously unaware of the relevant statutes that would supercede his ruling if he had a clue.
Why don’t these bastard attorneys and prosecutors and judges go find a REAL CRIMINAL to prosecute???
Heads up to all residents in CCW states. Never let a law get passed which makes simply carrying a weapon without a CCW permit a felony. At most, carrying without the permit with no concurrent offense or no legal disability for possession should only be a minor misdemeanor punishable only by a low dollar amount fine. Anything else and a miscarriage of justice such as the above will occur.
I have very little tolerance for petty judicial tyrants trying to avoid exculpatory evidence.
There are already a number of states where it is illegal to carry a firearm without a permit.
He should be punished for taking a .32 to a gun fight.
;O)
>>that while Correa legally fired a .32-caliber handgun at an attacker, “that does not decriminalize the prior action” of carrying the weapon while riding his bicycle through the community.<<
How can one legally do something with an object he can’t legally possess? Smoking marijuana is legal, but possessing it isn’t?
Open carry. On “CCW,” reserve our 2nd Amendment right exclusively for cronies of sheriffs, local administrators and the like, then you’ll lose it for yourselves, too, in the near future. And if you can’t see the likely economic collapse ahead along with the possibilities to follow that event, think again. Everyone who hasn’t recently been convicted of any violent crime and isn’t presently and obviously a threat to any other innocent person has that 2nd Amendment right.
Open carry, until every cowardly snob gets accustomed to it.
Open carry is against the law in Florida - at the moment now and the moment then.
If the trailer park/resort doesn’t have a gun ban and he was on the trailer resort property, I don’t think the charge should be relevant at all.
Too late for New York. Possession of a concealed firearm in public is a felony. Or do we not count as a CCW state because we’re “may-issue”?
I meant to say that possession of a concealed firearm in public WITHOUT a carry license is a felony.
>Open carry is against the law in Florida - at the moment now and the moment then.
If the act of carrying concealed may be regulated (ie CCW permits) then it may be denied; if it may be denied and open carry is not allowed then how can one have a Constitutionally guaranteed right to BEAR arms?
18 USC 242 is probably applicable here.
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