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Dave got busted.
My best friend Dave got arrested the other day.
Sounds like a pretty clear case of vehicular profiling to me. Dave rides a Harley. He’s also got a concealed handgun license. It so happens that the concealed handgun he had on him at the time he was pulled over the other day had a serial number that showed up as a stolen gun on a the officer’s terminal.
What’s particularly odd, is that he was pulled over for a “broken tail-light” — which wasn’t broken at all ( which he smartly displayed for both the arresting officer and the tow truck driver that was called to impound his bike ). He also stated that he had a receipt for the purchase of the gun from a Federally licensed gun dealer — proof that he purchased the weapon in good faith, even if it was stolen ( which is also not clear, since weapon serial numbers aren’t even unique ).
It get’s better. Dave’s friend Ari works at the County jail, and when Dave was booked, Ari went to Dave’s house and retrieved the receipt. Because the charge is a felony in Texas, the Judge was force to put some bail on Dave — but if you dig around the County records at the link above, you’ll see the link shows the Judge as Dave’s bail bonds-person. The judge actually reprimanded the officer at the bond hearing, because he had no reason to search Dave, and Dave had the proof he claimed, but he officer refused to drop charges.;
This was all on Thursday. Dave called the http://www.atf.treas.gov/“>ATF on Friday, and Special Agent Steven Steele ( no kiddin’, that’s really his name ) is on the case, and has already pursued the officer and his supervisors to try to get the charges dropped…because there’s no crime, or even reasonable suspicion of crime involved.
But…Dave’s out a day in jail, $75 to retrieve his motorcycle from the impound lot, and whatever he ends up having to pay a lawyer to have his record cleared.
Strangely, I kinda hope Dave has to go to court over this, just to embarass the officer in question. You see, Dave’s good friend Dennis was even with Dave when he bought the weapon in question. Dennis is a Deputy Sheriff in Aubrey, TX.
July 23rd, 2001 at 11:24 am
Just to follow up on my friend Dave’s arrest, he was ultimately cleared and charges dropped…he even got his gun back this week. He’ll still be out lawyer’s fees to get his arrest expunged from his record, however.
It turned out the gun he was carrying had been stolen from the gun dealer by a kid at a gun show. The weapon was returned by the kid’s father the next day, and the paperwork reversing the original report filed — but the serial number never made it out of the database.
Perhaps a good preview of what gun registration laws would do for us.
August 14th, 2001 at 6:28 am
Another followup on Dave’s arrest.
Yesterday, Dave got a call from his friend who works at the jail. Guess who had just been booked? That’s right, Trooper Del Rio, Dave’s arresting officer. He was being arrested by a whole boat load of Texas Rangers. I don’t remember the exact charge, but it was something involving abusing his uniform and position for personal gain.
Specifically, they ran a sting and caught him on video stealing from a suspect during a traffic stop.
Needless to say, Dave felt very good about this jerk’s misfortune.