I was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy in September 2018 for apparently going 49 mph in a 35 mph zone within 300 feet of my house. I was returning from the hospital emergency room where I had been discharged and the pharmacy where I had filled my prescription.
I held my hands out the window with my license and concealed carry card and offered them to him when he approached. He asked me “where is your pistol?” and I said, “I have multiple pistols, one on my right hip and another in a compartment next to the steering wheel."
He said, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
I replied, “Well I’m a trial attorney and I know better than to make a party admission but no, I have no clue.”
He said, “You were going 49 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone.”
I said, “I don’t know if I was or wasn’t, I honestly can’t say how fast I was going, I really don’t know, I’m exhausted and want to get home, if you say I was doing 49 then I probably was and it is entirely possibly.”
He then asked, “you seem very unfocused and confused, what is wrong with you?”
I said, “I was just discharged from the hospital, I am miserably ill and sick.” [severe flu and possible Lyme disease, Lyme disease tests ultimately came back negative]
He asked, “why are you even out right now?”
I then said, “I am literally coming back from the hospital. I have my discharge papers on the passenger seat next to my prescription from the pharmacy, and I’m going home to go to sleep, which incidentally if you check my address we are almost within eyesight of my house. If you want to see my discharge papers I can hand them to you.”
He then said, “Sir, are you aware you’re subject to a restraining order and can’t be in possession of a firearm, step out of the vehicle please, I’m going to take your guns.”
I said, “Okay, but respectfully officer, that isn’t correct, I am not subject to any restraining order, I am the protected party of a restraining order issued in my protection against a stalker who is restrained for my protection.”
I stepped out, he took and unloaded my pistols, and then I asked, “may I get the restraining order paperwork from my glove box and show you the time-stamped document with the court seal which clearly shows me as the petitioner and the other individual as the respondent?” he said, “yes, get your paperwork.”
I handed him the papers, he said he was going to call the court which he did, he then verified, “okay I either read the entry on the computer wrong or somebody entered it in wrong, the clerk just verified what you said, you’re not subject to a restraining order.”
He then returned both of my pistols to me.
During his securing and unloading of my second pistol [at the time he took it] he ejected the round from the chamber into the weeds by the side of the road and he wasn’t able to immediately find it. He now spent about four or five minutes looking for the cartridge, apologized that it was apparently lost, and I said, “I wouldn’t fret too much, it is just a single round of ammunition.”
He then said, “Well, I’m real sorry about that and the misunderstanding on the restraining order. I’m not going to give you a ticket because you’re almost home and you seem really ill, so you should probably just go home, take the medicine, and go to sleep. I hope you feel better and have a better day and are doing better tomorrow."
I said, “that has been my plan the whole time.”
The encounter then ended.
Nobody was killed, maimed, beaten, tazed, maced, or even arrested. It may have helped that I didn’t vault out of my vehicle and scream and shout, “you’re fucking wrong mother-fucker, ain’t no restraining order on me, I didn’t do shit! You ain’t taking shit!"
Imagine that, nobody was killed, I was calm, he let me explain my perspective on the misunderstanding, he looked at my papers, he contacted the court, he apologized for the mistake, returned my pistols to me, he even knelt down and tried to find my round of ammunition, and then he wished me well and told me to go home.
Does someone have to be severely injured or killed from someone driving at reckless speeds and only then you agree there should be a penalty?
