Schenectady (NY) County Judge Karen Drago knows “farfetched” when she
sees it — and defendant Frank Darmody is grateful. Judge Drago dismissed
a grand jury felony charge against Darmody on one count of “attempted criminal
possession of a weapon.” (Schenectady Daily Gazette, “Charge tied to weapon
dismissed,” Nov. 19, 2005, $ubscpt)
During a traffic stop on various violations, Darmody had told an officer that
there was a gun on the back seat of his vehicle, but it didn’t work and he was
repairing it for a friend. Tests showed that the gun was inoperable, and thus
could not be the basis for a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. However,
the innovative Assistant Schenectady County District Attorney, Martin Burke,
decided to seek an indictment based on Darmody’s intent to repair the weapon
and thus make it operable. Burke has admitted that he’s been unable to find
any case law on this issue.
Judge Drago therefore made a little caselaw of her own, in People v Darmody
(Oct. 28, 2005), stating:
“The People’s argument that the charge should stand because
he intended to repair the weapon and once operable he would
be in possession of the weapon is farfetched at best.”
Seems to me that the grand jury should have laughed A.D.A. Burke right out
of their hearing room. Of course, if Darmody had been caught in the very
act of repairing the gun, Judge Drago might have reached a different conclusion.
Would you? Any criminal law experts out there with an opinion?
You’ve got to wonder what ADA Burke might decide to do “bombfuse”
to anybody in possession of the book The Boy Mechanic –
a 1913 compilation by Popular Mechanics, available free
from Project Gutenberg, with the following cautionary
disclarimer (via RyeBlog and Blawg Review‘s Anonymous Ed) :
“These projects involve items such as gunpowder,
acetylene, hydrogen, lead, mercury, sulfuric acid,
nitric acid, cadmium, potassium sulfate, potassium
cyanide, potassium ferrocyanide, copper sulfate,
and hydrochloric acid. Several involve the construction
of hazardous electrical devices. Please view these as
snapshots of culture and attitude, not as suggestions
for contemporary activity.”
country stop sign–
the pink glow of sunset
through .22 holesmidday heat
the staccato staccato
of a nail gun
against the rumbling
of the thunderhead:
his toy gun
from Fresh Scent (Brooks Books, 1998)
hunting season
i read the inscription
inside my wedding band
lonely road
a policeman listens
as i recite the alphabethunting season
i lower my shotgun
to watch the pheasants
by dagosan
smells like Thanksgiving —
two dads smoke cigars
behind the garage
[Nov. 20, 2005]
“BombFuseN”
November 20, 2005
possession with intent to repair
Comments Off on possession with intent to repair
words and a logo for the Florida Supreme Court
The St. Petersburg Times has a very good editorial, in response to the
Florida Supreme Court’s decision banning a law firm’s Pit Bull logo, in
Here are some excerpts from “Snarf. Growl. Meow?,” (Nov. 20, 2005):
After very long thought and utterly serious deliberation, the Florida
Supreme Court has unanimously pronounced pit bulls to be very
bad dogs. Much too bad, you see, to symbolize a lawyer’s services.
We are not making this up, but we wish we were.
The reason why the court scoured law books and the Internet for
precedents, having none of its own, had nothing to do with injury to
a person or another animal. The harm in question was only to the
dignity of the legal profession, which obviously takes itself much too
seriously.
The real harm, however, was to the First Amendment . . .
. . . But the court is kidding only itself if it thinks that censoring the
profession’s advertising will make lawyers look like pussycats to the
people who have felt their claws.
In case the Florida Supreme Court needs a new symbol/logo for its
homepage, the f/k/a Gang, after at least as much deliberation as the
Court over Pit Bulls, suggests this fellow:
Or, perhaps, this version:
Just watch your step in their ethics pasture.
town dump
two magpies jabber
on an old brass bed
in the old elm’s shade
the black cat opens one eye
sunspot on its tail
as I wait
for the phone to ring the beagle
worries a bone
putting holes
in my argument
the woodpecker
George Swede from Almost Unseen (Brooks Books, 2000)
update (Nov. 23, 2005): see ” pit bull ” as compliment .
“pitbullLogo”
