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Attorney 'dumb' for carrying gun to court
By Vic Ryckaert vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
October 16, 2008 11:31 AM
A day after his arrest, an Indianapolis attorney said he was "dumb" to bring an unloaded gun into the City-County Building to use in a courtroom demonstration.
"I should have got a squirt gun or a wooden gun," Loren Jay Comstock told The Indianapolis Star by phone this morning. "It was a dumb thing, not an intentional criminal act."
The Marion County Sheriff's Department arrested Comstock, 74, on a preliminary charge of carrying a handgun without a license after deputies found he brought the unloaded gun in Marion Superior Court 23 on Wednesday morning. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail. "In retrospect on that thing, I've brought guns into court several times but what I've always done before is to get a court order," Comstock said. Comstock planned to use the gun and a loose fitting shirt as courtroom props in hopes of persuading a judge to find police had unlawfully searched one of his clients. Comstock has an identification card that allows him to bypass building security. Before the hearing, deputies determined Comstock did not have a gun permit and arrested him. Comstock earned his Indiana law license in 1972. He was released without having to post bond after spending about 9 1/2 hours in custody.
By Vic Ryckaert vic.ryckaert@indystar.com
October 16, 2008 11:31 AM
A day after his arrest, an Indianapolis attorney said he was "dumb" to bring an unloaded gun into the City-County Building to use in a courtroom demonstration.
"I should have got a squirt gun or a wooden gun," Loren Jay Comstock told The Indianapolis Star by phone this morning. "It was a dumb thing, not an intentional criminal act."
The Marion County Sheriff's Department arrested Comstock, 74, on a preliminary charge of carrying a handgun without a license after deputies found he brought the unloaded gun in Marion Superior Court 23 on Wednesday morning. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail. "In retrospect on that thing, I've brought guns into court several times but what I've always done before is to get a court order," Comstock said. Comstock planned to use the gun and a loose fitting shirt as courtroom props in hopes of persuading a judge to find police had unlawfully searched one of his clients. Comstock has an identification card that allows him to bypass building security. Before the hearing, deputies determined Comstock did not have a gun permit and arrested him. Comstock earned his Indiana law license in 1972. He was released without having to post bond after spending about 9 1/2 hours in custody.
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