I know someone who was arrested for possession of an unlicensed handgun outside of his domicile. He is not a friend, just a casual acquaintance. It's a felony charge in NY. He's been ROR and making monthly court appearences. My question is why is this dragging out? I would have thought that the DA would have either prosicuted the felony, or pled it out at this point. I have no experience in this type of law, so does anyone have an idea as to why this has gone on as long as it has.

Could be a whole lot of reasons and no, it's not unusual, although there are certainly (constitutional) speedy trial guarantees that kicked in once he was charged.

Is your acquaintance completely unaware of what's going on in his own case?

What information do you actually have?

-Rob

I suppose a little background is in order. Guy in question was one of the 'teaching pros' at a local gun store/range. He got pinched at JFK airport with a bunch of handguns that weren't his, and were in fact stolen from the store. Store fired him. He is a combat vet, USMC.

Being arrested at JFK means Queens county courts, which is in NYC. NYC has it's own dedicated gun court where no matter how far you plead it down, you still get convicted of a gun crime. The length of time this is taking may be his lawyer dragging it out to get something other thana felony for his client, or it could just be that's how NYC county courts roll. They are much busier than the upstate courts volume wise. I'm just wondering if it's something common to non violent felony cases in the civilian criminal court system.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:He got pinched at JFK airport with a bunch of handguns that weren't his, and were in fact stolen from the store. Store fired him.

He's got a bigger problem than the license.