Friday, July 10, 2009

not guilty

Local gunowner and former Gun Nuts Radio guest, Bryan Ledford called this afternoon to let me know that he was found not guilty of a CCW violation.

Previously harassed by the police for open carrying, Bryan was pulled over, had (what he thought was) a gun pointed at him, and was then arrested for not informing the officer that he had a CCW and was currently carrying a weapon.**

When police in Ohio run your license plate through the LEADS system, it automatically notifies them of your background, vehicle registration, criminal history, and your CHL/CCW status but, according to state law, you are still required to inform the officer yourself.

The time between getting stopped and Bryan's arrest for failure to inform? 51 seconds - and Bryan was able to prove it.

Now, I'm not sure if Bryan got arrested by an overzealous jerkwad of a cop or if he's walking around with a target on his back due to his first altercation. Perhaps both? Who knows. Either way, it's time for Ohio to stop treating some of its most law-abiding citizens like criminals.

** more details from OFCC:

[Bryan] was charged with "Improperly handling firearm in a motor vehicle", in violation of ORC Section 2923.16(E)(3)(a). He was stopped for a law enforcement purpose, but was ordered out of his vehicle at weapon point (thought it was a gun, later realized it was a tazer). He followed the instructions of the officer to exit vehicle, hands up, etc. Then he notified the officer about the weapon (legally) in the vehicle. So, he did notify, but the officer didn't think it was "prompt" enough.

Vehicle was towed, with a $140 tow bill. And had to post $400.00 bond. Officer also seized his CHL and told him he can not carry. Which is not correct, because the CHL gets suspended upon a conviction, not upon being charged.

19 comments:

Yuri Orlov said...

I'm very happy for him! Let's hope this is the start of better treatment of CCWers by the local LEO's. One can only hope.

Mad Saint Jack said...

I'm willing to believe that the police where out to get him,

but I'm bitter and clingy.

Mike W. said...

Glad to hear he got off. I definitely think this was a case of the police trying to bust him for something because he'd previously challenged their authoritah by open carrying.

We had a guy here in DE have his application for CCDW denied in part because a higher up in the PD took exception to his open carrying everywhere.

Jay G said...

Excellent news!!!

Mad Saint Jack said...

Bryan's Ohio Liberty blog is on the blogroll, although he has not updated it yet.

Old NFO said...

Excellent! and yes, he IS a target, not that I'd think anybody would do that... no... not me...

og said...

What charges were brought against the officers?

Buckshot said...

Yep, I would like to know if he has filed his lawsuit yet?

Sounds like a "color of law" violation over illegally taking his CCW (ONLY the Sheriff that issued it can do that in Ohio).

That means that, if you can make that stick you can sue him (the officer) PERSONALLY as well as a member of the department. No immunity from prosecution for illegal acts and color of law means that he used his uniform and position to perform an illegal act.

Whether they like it or not, they (the cops) SHOULD all know the law by now. The good ones all do.

We need to "prune back" those of them who want to "make it up to suit them as they go along" by hitting them and their departments in the wallet and maybe putting a few of them in jail with people they helped put there for a while.

CCW is over 5 years old in Ohio, the preemption is over 3 years old and, depending oh now you look at it, open carry is somewhere between 3, 7 and 206 years old, ignorance can no longer be an excuse for LE, since it never was for a citizen.

Buckshot

TexasFred said...

It's Ohio... The most retarded buttwads for cops in this nation...

Rumor has it that the homeless shelters are not too over populated because the Ohio Highway patrol goes by every so often and rounds em up, gets em a bath and a shave, a shiny new car and a badge and voila, Ohio State Troopers are born...

Glad the guy got out of this one, knowing the vindictive nature of cops in general, and the Ohio cops in particular, he might want to consider relocating to a gun friendly state...

PS... LMAO... The captcha thing is terds, how appropriate after talking about Ohio cops...

Buckshot said...

TexasFred,

Sounds like you must be a truck driver. That is about the only way that someone from Texas would be that familiar with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Especially since the Ohio State Highway Patrol has only LIMITED POLICE POWERS! They have everything to do with traffic enforcement. They have full police powers for traffic enforcement.

Other than that, they have police powers ONLY on state property or when on an executive protection detail and then the powers are limited to protecting their charge!

We keep their ears pinned back, they have WANTED to be the Ohio State Police for years, but we WON'T let them make that jump, we keep pinned back to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

We keep the county sheriff as the highest ranking law enforcement officer of each county. ONLY the county coroner of each county can override the sheriff of that county!

Buckshot

Chris M said...

We must have quite a few truck drivers and former truck drivers where I live. Last election the current sheriff announced he was retiring. One of his deputies ran and made a big deal about being a retired Ohio State Trooper. Big mistake. He came in well behind the man who won, a district court juvenile officer. Most people who stated an opinion said they were afraid if the former Ohio Trooper won he'd turn the sheriff's office into a dictatorship.

John B said...

Sounds to me like you need to remove, replace, -and perhaps stigmatize-, the current crop of law(less) officers.

Branding and horse whipping might be apropos. They'd do it for us.

Sounds like the LEO-tards have an Us and Them mindset.
Us and Them!
Us and Them!
Us and Them!
Us and Them!
Us and Them!
Ess and Emm!
S&M?!?

Truth will out!

John B said...

I think at this stage he could obtain a restraining order against the police.

TexasFred said...

Buckshot, you might be surprised at how worldly and well traveled a person from Texas may be...

The Ohio Highway Patrol is very well known for their gross stupidity and all around massive ego in the LEO community..

Maybe you should try reading a persons blog BEFORE you try to determine thier profession...

Buckshot said...

TexasFred,

I would NEVER read the blog of a person who came down that hard on my state!

I wouldn't go as far as wish you in the custody of the OSHP, but that is about the only limit I would put on myself after your comments.

I have been to Texas exactly one time. Back in '82. Heard about a cop from the Texarkana, TX area up for trial on abuse of his position with an underage female.

Changed freeways and headed west, going though Dallas-Ft. Worth all we heard on the radio was a cop on trial for multiple murders.

Half way between Dallas - Ft. Worth and Odessa - Midland there was a local sheriff on trial for embezzlement of county funds.

We did run into a nice, friendly small town cop around the edges of Odessa - Midland. He gave us directions to a road too new to be on the map and told us to just fire a flare if we could not find it and he would come on out and show us!

That is a selection out of the local news broadcasts while spending 20 hours or so crossing most of Texas. Absent the encounter with the local cop, I would have had a picture of Texas LE about like you have of the OSHP. While I would NEVER defend the Highway Gestapo (what we call them around here) I really would not trash a whole state like you do!

You CAN'T dislike them any more than I do, I spent three months working at a State Hospital, and OSHP was the investigating agency. Gestapo troopers would not even say hello or anything, just read you your rights and then get totally hacked off when we refused to talk to them till we had a union rep present!

Buckshot

Anonymous said...

Funny, there are a couple of threads on SIGFORUM germane to this. There is video floating around of a OST stopping two other cops off duty, drag racing on motorcycles. The trooper turns off his mic, and the cops were ticketed four days later.

If a non-LEO did that, they'd be cuffed, stuffed, and bailed out in front of a judge. Several cops on SIGFORUM argue for officer discretion, and they can't treat a fellow officer like an actual, voter, as the officer might fail to come to their aid later in an interaction with a non-cop. Yes, there is a tremendous "us vs them" mentality.

Anonymous said...

No Oathkeepers in Ohio State Highway Patrol obviously.
YeOldFurt

HollyB said...

Buckshot,
as a 5th gen Native Texan please let me assure you all Texans are not as impolite as Texas Fred. A large percentage of our citizens [especially the Natives]usually are viewed as friendly and polite.
AND for all,
While some LEOs are NOT knowledgeable about the gun and carry laws in their state, others are. Not every LEO in the country is malicious or ignorant. We tend to hear more about those that are ignorant and/or malicious, especially on gun-type blogs, because when writing comments on the web, we'd rather complain than praise authority figures.
Please consider some of the most ardent gun rights activists work in Law Enforcement. I know my family members in Law Enforcemetn will appreciate your courtesy.

TexasFred said...

Holly, I wasn't impolite in ANY way, I spoke my mind, but there are many that can't handle blatant honesty... Apparently YOU are one of them...

Buckshot, might be a good thing you have kept your Yankee self OUT of Texas all this time, no sense in allowing the gene pool to be further poluted by imported Yankees.. :)

Seriously, I have had dealing with OHP officers over the years, conferences, shooting matches, you know, various and sundried LEO stuff, and in MY opinion, far and away, the term P*ICK would be entirely too kind in application of definition when talking about OHP officers...

And Buckshot, that was 1982... We HAVE made some serious advances since then, why hell, we even let the colored folks speak in public now...