testing the police state waters?

S

SmarterthanYou

rebel
Arrested, arraigned, held on 500k bond, but for what crime?

Keni Garcia told police he intended to use the 30,000 bullets they found in his car and home for target practice.

That is hard to believe, the prosecutor at Garcia's arraignment said, because if he were to fire a gun for eight hours a day, it would take weeks for him to use all of it.

Garcia, who allegedly bought thousands of rounds of ammunition and had 10,000 bullets in his car when he was stopped by police Thursday, was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail yesterday.

Attorney Socrates de la Cruz of Lawrence, who represented Garcia, 32, of 12 Freeman St., at his arraignment in Haverhill District Court, said he will appeal the high bail in Superior Court.

Garcia is charged with three counts of possession of a high-capacity firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and illegal storage of a firearm. His case was continued until June 12.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Holland asked Judge Patricia Dowling to impose $750,000 cash bail.

"He has no reason to stay here," Holland said.

The judge ordered Garcia to surrender his passport, and said that if he makes bail he is not to leave Massachusetts.

Garcia is a native of the Dominican Republic who was expected to become a U.S. citizen yesterday, but then he was arrested, authorities said.

Police arrested Garcia after he had left Interstate 495 at Exit 49 Thursday. They said they found 10,000 rounds of ammunition in his car. His two young daughters also were in the car, police said.

Holland said at Garcia's arraignment that a "joint effort" by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and state police found that Garcia had previously bought 20,000 rounds of ammunition in New Hampshire.

Garcia told police he only intended to use the bullets for target practice at a rifle range, Holland said, disputing Garcia's explanation. His common law wife, Elizabeth Reynoso, consented to a search and police found another 20,000 rounds, Holland said. They also found one .38-caliber and two 9 mm handguns, and $25,000 in cash, Holland said.

The prosecutor said all of the bullets seized from Garcia were for .38-caliber, 9 mm and .22-caliber firearms. Such ammunition is "like gold in the Dominican Republic," he said.

Holland said Reynoso told police he had "a shipping type of business" and that the $25,000 in cash must have come from Garcia cashing a business check.

"Where is the crime?" de la Cruz asked. The lawyer said Garcia had lived in New Hampshire for three years before recently moving to Haverhill.

"He bought the guns legally," de la Cruz said. "He never hid the fact that he had them."

Furthermore, de la Cruz said that when Garcia moved to Haverhill, he had a 60-day grace period to obtain a Massachusetts firearms card.

"There is no crime committed," he argued, saying there was no evidence that Garcia was shipping guns or ammunition to the Dominican Republic.
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He's been charged with three serious crimes and is certainly a high risk of fleeing, I'd say the high cash bond is warranted. It is this risk of flight, rather than the gun charges, that is the cause of the high bond.
 
Mottleydude said:
He's been charged with three serious crimes and is certainly a high risk of fleeing, I'd say the high cash bond is warranted. It is this risk of flight, rather than the gun charges, that is the cause of the high bond.
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the three crimes he's charged with are not existing MASS laws though, so how can charges be justified?
 
Damocles said:
Wow. Where's the ACLU?
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crapola, indeed, where is the aclu

oat, he might have just a wee bit more ammo than would be used for target practice

forget how long it would take to fire them, think of how long it would take to load that much ammo

i mean i only have 10,000 rounds of ammo, so what is the problem, .22 lr ammo is cheap (about 1 -2 cents per round and bricks of 500 rounds are easy to get)
 
DonQuixote said:
crapola, indeed, where is the aclu

oat, he might have just a wee bit more ammo than would be used for target practice

forget how long it would take to fire them, think of how long it would take to load that much ammo

i mean i only have 10,000 rounds of ammo, so what is the problem, .22 lr ammo is cheap (about 1 -2 cents per round and bricks of 500 rounds are easy to get)
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There is nothing wrong with having enough to fire at the range for a few years. I know I do. There isn't any laws against owning ammunition. It's rubbish to take him into custody for this.

And to make it even worse, his rights are violated one day before his citizenship ceremony? Sickening. The silence from the ACLU is indeed deafening.
 
Damocles said:
There is nothing wrong with having enough to fire at the range for a few years. I know I do. There isn't any laws against owning ammunition. It's rubbish to take him into custody for this.

And to make it even worse, his rights are violated one day before his citizenship ceremony? Sickening. The silence from the ACLU is indeed deafening.
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:clink:
 
DonQuixote said:
oat, he might have just a wee bit more ammo than would be used for target practice
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Depends on how much you practice. Take standard .22 competition targets, for instance. A single target is 10 bulls plus sighting bull. 3 targets per set (Offhand, sitting/kneeling, prone) A practice session of 5 sets is 15 targets, 150 rounds, not including sighting.

Practice 3-4 time/week, that's 600+/week, or 30K+ rounds/year.

Certainly that's more practice than most, but not, as the above figures show, some ridiculous amount. The people who shoot an average score of 299.5 or better certainly don't get there by plinking a box of 50 every other weekend.
 
Garcia is charged with three counts of possession of a high-capacity firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and illegal storage of a firearm. His case was continued until June 12.
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Since when is it illegal anywhere to own ammunition?

Looks to me like the commonwealth of Massachusetts is begging for a massive wrongful prosecution lawsuit. I'd like to see GOA set up a defense/lawsuit fund for this guy. I'd contribute.
 
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