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The same judge and prosecutor who let professional football star Ray Rice avoid a trial after beating his wife unconscious are pushing forward with the prosecution of Shaneen Allen, a single mother who carried a gun into New Jersey without realizing her Pennsylvania permit didn't apply there.
Allen, a mother of two from Philadelphia, was driving in New Jersey last fall when she was pulled over by a police officer. She informed the officer she had a handgun in her purse and a Pennsylvania license-to-carry permit, at which point the officer arrested her and charged her with a felony for unlawful possession of a weapon, because New Jersey does not recognize out-of-state gun permits.
Allen tried to avoid a trial and jail time by applying to a pre-trial intervention programin New Jersey for first-time offenders. Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back who knocked his then-fiancee unconscious during an altercation in Atlantic City in February, was accepted into the program in May.
But Superior Court Judge Michael Donio and New Jersey District Attorney Jim McClain, the same judge and prosecutor who allowed Rice to avoid prosecution, denied Allen's application to the program on Wednesday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Allen, 27, cried for a moment in the hallway with her son Naiare and his father after a judge denied her motion to dismiss weapons charges filed against her in October and refused to overturn a prosecutor's decision to deny her entry into a first-time-offender diversion program.
So Allen walked back into court, turned down a plea deal that would have given her a 3 1/2-year sentence and decided to go to trial in October, hoping a jury would use some common sense and not send a working mother of two to prison for not knowing New Jersey's gun laws.
Allen has no criminal record, and she claims she bought the gun for self-defense after being robbed. Her trial is scheduled for October.
^My comment on this, it just goes to show that you're often better off legal wise to have committed a crime with actual victims and violence towards people, than commit a victimless non-violent crime.
This really goes to show that there is a huge double standard in this country for haves and have nots. Judge and Prosecutor let the millionaire star NFL player off the hook, but throw the book at the woman for ignorance of New Jersey gun laws. Her plea deal was 3.5 years in prison, the NFL player got no where near that kind of penalty for beating his girlfriend so bad to the point that she was unconscious.
Edit: Another comment I'd like to make about the NFL player. The NFL thought they would "send a message" to Ray Rice by suspending him for 2 games, for beating his girl friend up so bad. If he had been caught smoking marijuana, the suspension would be no less than FOUR games. So is the NFL conveying the message that you're better off hitting your wife, than hitting a bong? Because that's the message I got from their penalty.
Allen, a mother of two from Philadelphia, was driving in New Jersey last fall when she was pulled over by a police officer. She informed the officer she had a handgun in her purse and a Pennsylvania license-to-carry permit, at which point the officer arrested her and charged her with a felony for unlawful possession of a weapon, because New Jersey does not recognize out-of-state gun permits.
Allen tried to avoid a trial and jail time by applying to a pre-trial intervention programin New Jersey for first-time offenders. Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens running back who knocked his then-fiancee unconscious during an altercation in Atlantic City in February, was accepted into the program in May.
But Superior Court Judge Michael Donio and New Jersey District Attorney Jim McClain, the same judge and prosecutor who allowed Rice to avoid prosecution, denied Allen's application to the program on Wednesday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Allen, 27, cried for a moment in the hallway with her son Naiare and his father after a judge denied her motion to dismiss weapons charges filed against her in October and refused to overturn a prosecutor's decision to deny her entry into a first-time-offender diversion program.
So Allen walked back into court, turned down a plea deal that would have given her a 3 1/2-year sentence and decided to go to trial in October, hoping a jury would use some common sense and not send a working mother of two to prison for not knowing New Jersey's gun laws.
Allen has no criminal record, and she claims she bought the gun for self-defense after being robbed. Her trial is scheduled for October.
^My comment on this, it just goes to show that you're often better off legal wise to have committed a crime with actual victims and violence towards people, than commit a victimless non-violent crime.
This really goes to show that there is a huge double standard in this country for haves and have nots. Judge and Prosecutor let the millionaire star NFL player off the hook, but throw the book at the woman for ignorance of New Jersey gun laws. Her plea deal was 3.5 years in prison, the NFL player got no where near that kind of penalty for beating his girlfriend so bad to the point that she was unconscious.
Edit: Another comment I'd like to make about the NFL player. The NFL thought they would "send a message" to Ray Rice by suspending him for 2 games, for beating his girl friend up so bad. If he had been caught smoking marijuana, the suspension would be no less than FOUR games. So is the NFL conveying the message that you're better off hitting your wife, than hitting a bong? Because that's the message I got from their penalty.