Will "SENATOR" Web get the same treatment this lady did for making a simple mistake::::
WHEN the new school year begins, Deena Esteban will not be among the legions of educators welcoming students back to class.
That's because Mrs. Esteban, a 43-year-old art teacher in Prince William County, Va., lost the job she loved after being convicted of a felony last fall. Her crime? Bringing a gun to school. Mrs. Esteban's case is a textbook case of zero-tolerance tyranny. Teachers are the forgotten casualties of the education establishment's absolutist war on guns.
Mrs. Esteban had never been in trouble with the law. The married mother of two owned a .38-caliber revolver for self-defense and - like millions of Americans across the country - held a valid, concealed-weapons permit. She carried the gun when she went out alone, mostly on errands. One fateful night last spring, she put the gun in her handbag before going out to entertain her visiting parents. The next morning, she brought the bag to school - not realizing the firearm was still in it, she says.
When she left the bag unattended for a short period in her classroom, a colleague opened it and found the gun. No one was hurt. It was an unfortunate accident. Mrs. Esteban says she would never do anything deliberately to put children in harm's way. She was willing to accept a reasonable punishment for her mistake.
Despite acknowledging that Mrs. Esteban showed no criminal intent, government lawyers threw the book at her. They charged Mrs. Esteban with a felony count of possessing a gun on school grounds. A jury convicted her last October, imposing a $2,500 fine and 12-month jail sentence. A judge suspended the prison term and slightly reduced the fine in January, but the incident continues to wreak havoc on the Esteban family.
Mrs. Esteban's former colleagues ostracized her and she has been unemployed since her arrest and conviction, which is headed to an appeals court next month. "No one wants to hire you when you have to check the box on the form that says 'Yes, I have been convicted of a felony,' " Mrs. Esteban notes sadly. "People think I'm some kind of dirtbag."
This overzealous gun-control policy has also robbed Mrs. Esteban of her privacy and personal dignity. She cannot travel out of state without permission. Her DNA is registered in a state database. And the police released her home address, phone number, and mug shot to the media.
Mrs. Esteban's husband, Philip, now works two jobs to support the family and help cover their legal bills. He believes this was "clearly a political prosecution…It's bizarre beyond comprehension that you can be convicted of merely possessing something that's constitutionally protected."
No but his aide might. Another story I saw on FR a while back was about C4 being left on a plane after some training exercise. Yes mistakes do happen.
Do you have a link to that story? If not, is that the complete story, or are we supposed to just wonder why a colleague was going through her handbag just for the hell of it? Nice bit of reporting.
That should have never happened and I hope she wins the Appeal!
One question, ok, two:
1) What happened to the "colleague" who was rifling through Mrs. Esteban's purse and who is this person?
When I was in high school here, one of my classmates went through something similar. Over the weekend, his dad had taken him to the shooting range, and he had forgotten and left the handgun they had been using in his bookbag. He was dropped off at school on Monday morning and immediately realized the gun was in his bag, so he went straight to the principal's office and told the principal what had happened so he could give the gun to the principal for his dad to pick it up.
He was expelled.