What one woman wants for Christmas: a returned gunBy J.R. LABBE
Susan Gaylord Buxton wants her gun back.
She could have a long wait, given how slowly the wheels of justice can grind.
Buxton, known from hither to yon as the gun-toting granny, is confused about why Arlington police seized her handgun after she shot an intruder Nov. 9. It's not as if the circumstances under which Buxton used the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber featherweight are in question. The 66-year-old Buxton shot Christopher Lessner, 22, as he lunged at her from inside her hall closet. He'd broken into the house after fleeing from Arlington police at a traffic stop.
The story became fodder for late-night TV jokes, radio talk shows -- even a song parody. Buxton, who's got spunk to spare, doesn't mind the jesting but she's serious as a stroke about getting her gun back.
For his part, Lessner sits in the Tarrant County Jail, nursing a gunshot wound to the leg and unable to make a $15,750 bond for charges of criminal mischief, criminal trespass and evading arrest. There's an additional $5,000 bond for a theft he's charged with committing two days earlier in Euless.
Buxton, who has not been criminally charged, understands that the officers who responded to her 28-year-old granddaughter's 911 call needed to secure the premises. She willingly handed over her gun -- actually, she dropped it to the ground when directed to do so by an officer who was pointing his sidearm at her. Why police confiscated the gun is what has her baffled.
"What does it have to do with the case against Lessner?" Buxton asked. "It's not like he's charged with getting himself shot."
Christy Gilfour, media spokeswoman for the Arlington Police Department, said she is aware of Buxton's determination to retrieve her personal property, but the department isn't calling the shots.
"Until the case has gone through the entire adjudication process, the district attorney has asked us to hold onto it," Gilfour said Wednesday. "With any kind of criminal investigation that involves a weapon, even if our officers are involved in a shooting, we take the weapon and hold onto it."
Mark Thielman, an assistant district attorney in the county's criminal division, confirmed that the handgun is in the Arlington police property room at the direction of his office.
"It is undisputed that it was seized by police as part of a criminal investigation," Thielman said. "What particular relevance it has for the state in connection with prosecuting charges against Lessner or for the defense, I can't tell you.
"The defendant has a constitutional interest in receiving a full and fair defense. If his lawyer thinks those things are relevant, then the gun remains as evidence in the case. We have contacted Lessner through his lawyer and asked if they would agree to release the evidence that has been seized by police at this point. He indicated that he is not willing to do so."
That explanation doesn't sit well with Buxton, who thinks "the good guys aren't supposed to be penalized, and I consider myself one of the good guys."
"I didn't feel like a victim the first time, simply because I had a firearm and I knew how to use it, and that at least made us equal," said Buxton, who has completed the training and testing to receive a state-issued concealed carry permit. "But I feel victimized by my own police department because they won't return my property."
Buxton has enlisted the help of Arlington attorney Albert Ross to try to get her gun back. Ross, a member of the NRA and the Texas State Rifle Association, is contemplating filing a motion that would force Lessner's court-appointed attorney to declare in court why the gun is relevant.
"I think he's hanging onto it just for the hassle factor," Ross said Thursday. "If a judge enters an order to give Susan her gun back, it might force someone who doesn't want that to happen to go up on appeal. I don't think the state should pay for a court-appointed defense attorney to appeal such an order."
Buxton's frustration is understandable, but the truth is that she has the full force of the state working on her behalf to prosecute the suspect. Right now you couldn't convince her of that, since she sees the good guys -- the police and the district attorney's office -- as part of her problem.
As much as crime victims and victims' advocates dislike hearing it, the American justice system is about protecting the defendant's right to a fair trial. The accused, who is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of peers, must have the leeway to mount a full defense. It's a well-established concept of our criminal justice system that if the prosecution has information that could cast doubt on the defendant's guilt, the evidence must be handed over.
It's impossible to know what Lessner's lawyer might argue, or by what stretch of the imagination Buxton's gun would figure into his defense. For now, her .38 remains in the police property room.
But thanks to the handgun and Buxton's ability to use it, this grandmother of 11 will spend Christmas with her family -- and Lessner will remain in the Tarrant County Jail, where his Christmas cheer will be three hots and a cot.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/13377049.htm*FW Note:Real food for thought.
If you are forced to defend yourself, the authorities will take your firearm and keep it for a while. Count on it.
A lot of things to be said here, but the one thing that should be on your checklist is a totally reliable backup piece.
If you feel thare's a chance that the cops might attempt to strip you of all of your firearms and leave you defenseless, then plan for that contingency.
:wink:
