DA must return gun to man charged with waving it in road rage case, Pa. court says :: 01/23/2017

Saying no law in Pennsylvania specifically allows such a seizure, a state appeals court panel on Friday ordered Adams County officials to return a pistol to a driver who was accused of brandishing it during a road rage incident.

In ruling in favor of Justen Irland, the Commonwealth Court judges found that "common law forfeiture" doesn't exist under Pennsylvania law. That means courts cannot order seizures of property linked to crimes unless the Legislature enacts laws that in no uncertain terms allow property to be taken in such circumstances.

The court issued its decision via an opinion by Judge Patricia A. McCullough, whose legal review for the case stretched back three centuries, into the English law that governed pre-Revolutionary America.

Basically, McCullough concluded that elements of English law that would have allowed the seizure of Irland's gun were never carried over into the laws of the new United States. That applies to the current situation in Pennsylvania, she found.

Irland's run-in with the law occurred in November 2013 when he was accused of waving his legally-owned pistol at another driver who was tail-gating him, McCullough wrote. Irland, 27, of Hanover, was arrested and his gun was confiscated. He was charged with simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.

In August 2014, Irland pleaded to a summary charge of disorderly conduct to resolve the case. He was fined $200.

The dispute went to Commonwealth Court after county Judge Thomas R. Campbell refused Irland's plea to return the 9 mm pistol and ordered that it be destroyed. Campbell concluded there was a "substantial nexus" between the gun and the crime Irland committed.

Although it ended up siding with him, McCullough stressed that her court "does not in any way condone Irland's behavior."

Still, she found, no state law allows the gun forfeiture because Irland pleaded guilty only to a summary offense. "Absent a statute that specifically authorizes the forfeiture of property, the commonwealth had no authority to seek, and the trial court had no authority to order, forfeiture of Irland's property," McCullough wrote.

The Adams County District Attorney's Office can appeal the Commonwealth Court ruling to the state Supreme Court.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/01/da_must_return_gun_to_man_char.html