Firearms Lawyer Blog

Our Fort Lauderdale firearms criminal defense attorneys were interested in a major federal operation taking place in our area. According to a Jan. 20 article in the New York Times, federal agents ended a large-scale undercover operation last week when they arrested more than 20 people for allegedly taking bribes from foreign officials. Top executives at numerous mid-sized arms and armor companies, as well as Smith & Wesson’s vice president of sales, were charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This federal law forbids American individuals and businesses from bribing foreign officials to gain an improper advantage.

It was the first-ever undercover operation against foreign bribery, the Times said, and signaled a new FBI focus on white-collar crime. Government agents posed as a representative of a defense minister in an unnamed African country. The representative offered arms company executives a $15 million contract to outfit the foreign president’s guard. As part of that deal, the representative explicitly said he would get a 20% commission and pass on half to the defense minister as a bribe. Many of the initial deals were struck at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami. However, almost all of the defendants were arrested at a firearms trade show in Las Vegas called the SHOT Show, which the newspaper suggested was a message to the industry. In addition to the FCPA charges, which carry up to five years in prison, the defendants also face money laundering charges penalized by up to 20 years.

The FCPA was passed in the 1970s after an SEC investigation showed numerous American companies involved in outright bribery of foreign officials to get or keep business. However, it makes a distinction between illegal bribes and legal “grease payments,” which encourage officials to expedite duties they were already planning to perform. As Miami firearms crimes defense lawyers, we believe this distinction could be crucial to the defense of the firearms-industry executives netted in this sting. Unfortunately, the reality is that “grease payments” are the only efficient way to do business in some other countries. Businesses operating in these countries shouldn’t face criminal penalties for simply doing what the local culture requires. Defendants may also be able to argue that they were entrapped by undercover officials into paying a bribe they would not otherwise have sought out.

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As responsible gun ownership advocates and Miami firearms criminal defense attorneys, we were disturbed to see a recent article about a high schooler prosecuted for possession of a weapon. Florida Today reported Jan. 8 that Gary Ritchie-Shefield, 17, was sentenced to home detention for 21 days pending an arraignment. Ritchie-Shefield, a junior at Cocoa High School on the Space Coast, was arrested after school administrators and police officers searched the car he had driven to school. The search uncovered some marijuana and an AK-47 automatic weapon in a fabric case. In addition to the juvenile criminal charges, Ritchie-Shefield has been suspended from school and may be expelled. Prosecutors are reviewing whether to try him an adult on charges of possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of a firearm on school property and disrupting a school function.

Ritchie-Shefield did not bring the gun into the school, officials say, and police don’t believe he intended to hurt anyone there. In fact, because the car is registered to a relative, it was not clear whether the gun was even his, although he admitted to investigators that he knew it was there. School officials searched the car the day after receiving an anonymous tip that Ritchie-Shefield had drugs. He wasn’t at school that day, but the next day, they took him out of class, handcuffed him and searched the Buick he’d driven to school. School administrators said they had the right to search the car under Brevard County schools policy. But Ritchie-Shefield’s criminal defense attorney disputes that, saying the search was probably illegal.

The newspaper report included a short video with more from the police:

As Fort Lauderdale gun charges criminal defense lawyers, we notice that most of this would be perfectly legal for an adult. Under Florida law, adults may own an automatic weapon like an AK-47 and carry it in a car’s trunk (or glove compartment). It’s also perfectly legal to carry a weapon in many places in Florida, although schools are an exception. We don’t believe Ritchie-Shefield showed good judgment by knowingly bringing the gun to school, but the reaction by officials seems to be disproportionate or even hysterical. After all, no one was hurt, the gun never left the trunk, and school officials would never have known it was there if someone hadn’t tipped them off about the marijuana. If his defense attorney is right that the initial search was illegal, tainting all of the evidence it produced, we hope the courts do the right thing and dismiss the case.

Continue reading " Central Florida High Schooler Arrested for Leaving a Gun in Trunk of Car " »

As Miami firearms crimes defense attorneys, we are very interested in the ongoing fallout in the case of Washington Wizards basketball player Gilbert Arenas Jr. Arenas made the news Jan. 5 when he pretended to shoot his teammates during a pre-game huddle. The next day, Sports Illustrated reported, the NBA Commissioner suspended him indefinitely, a move the Wizards organization supported. The incident closely followed another in late December in which Arenas displayed unloaded guns in his locker as “a misguided effort to play a joke on a teammate.” Arenas met with law enforcement Jan. 4 to discuss that incident, then issued a statement apologizing. He issued another Jan. 6 taking responsibility for his actions and apologizing to his team and fans.

Arenas is under criminal investigation in connection with the December incident, in which he brought several unloaded guns from home and stored them in his locker. He said it was an attempt to keep the guns away from his three young children, but news reports suggested he also had a gambling dispute with a teammate. Arenas lives in suburban Virginia, where only a permit for concealed carry is required, and Virginia authorities have not shown interest in investigating him. However, simply transporting the guns to D.C. may have violated the District’s stricter gun laws. To bring licensed guns into D.C., gun owners must register them with the city or face misdemeanor charges. Bringing unlicensed guns into D.C. is punished even more harshly, with up to five years in prison.

As West Palm Beach gun crimes criminal defense lawyers, we can’t help but notice that Arenas is essentially falling victim to D.C.’s harsh gun control laws. If he had stayed home in Virginia, just a few miles away, his actions may have been completely legal. But thanks to the capital’s history of street violence, the city council there has come down hard against its citizens’ right to bear arms. The 2008 Supreme Court decision in D.C. v. Heller made it legal to own a gun in D.C., but the city council has still put restrictions on transporting guns outside the home, as well as registration requirements and limits on the types of guns citizens may own. We believe this is overly onerous for responsible owners of legal guns -- and as this case shows, it makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding people.

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As Miami firearms crimes criminal defense attorneys, we have followed coverage of a tragic New Year’s Eve accident with interest. As the Miami Herald reported Jan. 4, a six-year-old boy named Andrea Fregonese was seriously hurt as he celebrated the new year with his parents at a restaurant in the Design District. The family was vacationing in Miami from northern Italy. Law enforcement believes the bullet that hit him was falling after being fired into the air in celebration of the holiday, despite aggressive public education efforts by authorities trying to prevent such an accident. The boy was originally taken to intensive care and underwent surgery there, but was moved out of the ICU on Jan. 4, listed in serious but stable condition.

According to an earlier Herald article, the family was dining outdoors during the accident. Just after midnight, Fregonese complained of pain in his torso. After checking under his shirt, his parents rushed him to the hospital. Law enforcement is not sure where the bullet may have come from; they urged witnesses to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers or the police department’s Homicide Unit. The article said stray bullets fired into the air are an ongoing problem in Miami-Dade. At least three other people have died this way in the past four years, and at least four others were wounded. The incident made the news in Europe, much of it unflattering. Miami’s mayor has pledged that the city will do what it can to help the family, and businesses have offered free lodgings, meals and taxi rides during Fregonese’s recovery.

Because this incident has attracted a lot of negative press, we suspect that anyone caught will face the most severe charges prosecutors can justify. However, as Fort Lauderdale gun crimes defense lawyers, we do not believe an assault charge would be legally correct or justified. Under Florida law, the intent of the shooter matters. A charge of aggravated battery -- a likely charge for an attack with a firearm -- requires proving that the defendant intentionally or knowingly caused great bodily harm. This is not to say that we believe the injury shouldn’t be punished. As NRA referral attorneys with substantial firearms expertise, we believe in free, legal and responsible gun ownership. Shooting into the air is not responsible. However, assuming that the firearm itself was legally owned, a more appropriate charge could be culpable negligence, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Continue reading " Miami Rallies Around Italian Tourist Child Hit by Bullet on New Year’s Eve " »