So we have the Newark Airport case (Greg Revell), we have the PA mom, and now this gentleman.
Revell -- charges dropped (after much negative publicity)
PA Mom -- charges reduced, allowed to enter accelerated rehabilitation (after much negative publicity)
Gordon Van Gilder -- charges dropped (after much negative publicity)
It's beginning to appear that none of NJ's prosecutors want to become national laughingstocks for actually taking such a ridiculous case to court -- and probably losing it. I was pretty certain that Revell would have been exonerated if his case had gone to trial, and that the prosecutor dropped it because he didn't want to risk losing and setting a precedent. I think even more strongly that had to be a consideration here. Can you imagine trying a man who looks like Santa Clause, and who is a retired and highly respected teacher, as a felon with a gun -- over a pistol that George Washington might have had stuck in his belt when he rowed across the river? I don't think they'd ever find a jury who would convict him -- so why bother?
This was just law enforcement comedy theater, Keystone Kops. Must be a small county with not enough real crime for the sheriff to investigate. A ballistic test on an historical flintlock? When the charge is just possession in a vehicle? WHY? So they get a fired ... projectile (not really a bullet). So what? There were no crimes in the county suspected of having been committed by a flintlock-bearing Santa Clause, so what are they going to compare it to?
I think the deputies all just decided, "Hey, that's pretty cool. Let's touch it off and see how it works!"
