Posted on 04/04/2011 5:01:24 AM PDT by marktwain
Brian Aitken of Hoboken was once inmate number 000737585C at Mid-State Correctional Annex State Prison in Fort Dix after he was arrested for unlawful possession of a handgun and ammunition.
In January of 2009, after his mother was concerned for Aitken’s safety, she called police, but then quickly hung up. The police still came to their southern New Jersey home. They searched Aitken’s car and discovered three handguns, unloaded, in the trunk that were legally purchased in Colorado.
Read more: Hudson Reporter - A Hoboken man and his guns After fighting wrongful sentence gets nod for Reformer Award
Aitken had known that moving to New Jersey with the guns might be an issue, given the state’s strict gun laws. So, three days before his arrest, he had a 45-minute conversation with the New Jersey State Police, who told him he was allowed to transport the guns between residences if he was moving.
However, Aitken was arrested by the local police for unlawful possession. He was sentenced to seven years in prison after a two day trial.
“It seems like in New Jersey, if you have a gun you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Aitken said last week in a phone interview.
Aitken was offered a plea deal before the trial, but said he wouldn’t accept it because he didn’t feel he was guilty of a crime.
Aitken’s mother had called police on the night of the arrest because she worried her son might be depressed following a recent divorce. It was then that they searched Aitken’s car and found the guns.
“They offered me a 5-1, which means a five year sentence with only one year of mandatory jail time,” Aitken said. “The judge told me it wasn’t a long time and that I was a young boy and would bounce right back after a year.”
After a two-day trial of what Aitken and his attorneys have called an aggressive prosecution, he was given his sentence. Jurors had asked what the exceptions to the law were, including the information about transporting guns while moving between residences. Aitken’s attorney said the judge didn’t provide the jurors the information on three occasions.
So, Aitken began his sentence.
Outside of prison, Aitken’s girlfriend Jenna Bostock organized efforts to call attention to his case on social media sites, like Facebook.
“I just wanted to help him out,” Bostock said. “I knew that a serious injustice was done, and I worked in social media, so it’s how I knew to help out.”
People started to join Bostock’s Facebook group and wrote to Gov. Chris Christie asking for him to release Aitken. Days went by in prison for Aitken, and they weren’t easy.
“The majority of the offenders were pedophiles and sex offenders,” he said of his time in prison in Fort Dix. “It’s no white collar resort.”
Momentum swinging
Hope started to build.
Letters poured in to the governor, asking for a commutation of the sentence. The Facebook group started by Boskon drew over 16,000 members.
“On Dec. 20, [2010], after dinner, they pulled me off of my wing and put me into the solitary isolation, or intensive closed custody,” Aitken said.
Aitken said after that he was “incredibly, cautiously optimistic.”
“I had spent the last two years putting my fate in other people and being let down,” he said.
On the morning of Dec. 21, a guard came in and told Aitken to call his family to pick him up. The sentence was commuted by Christie to time served.
“I broke down in tears,” Aitken said. “I wanted to just get out, see my family, and be able to hug them. I know it’s the same air, but you breathe it differently when you’re free.”
Life after prison
Aitken, who now lives in Hoboken but often travels for his job at the Foundation for Economic Education, is hoping to return to a sense of normalcy. He knows life isn’t the same as it was before the arrest.
“I’ve lost about two and a half years of my life, all of my money, my house, my car,” he said. “I haven’t seen my son turn two or three. I haven’t been there for Father’s Day. I’ve never played catch with my son.”
He lost custody of his child from a previous marriage because of the gun charges.
“The toll is unbelievable,” he said. “There’s no formula for equating what kind of damage it’s done.”
Aitken has talked about his plight on FOX News, New Jersey radio stations, and on a number of other television shows.
Now, the Hoboken resident is nominated at the Sammy awards, which recognize political activists from across the nation. The ceremony will be held in Chicago on April 8. Aitken is nominated for “Reformer of the Year.”
Aitken’s commutation was the first and only such ruling thus far from Christie.
“Gov. Christie did the right thing,” Bostock said.
But still, she says the incident took a toll on their lives.
“They took a certain innocence from us,” she said last week. “It’s been a really big adjustment. They took something I can’t describe. We didn’t know that anything like this could happen in our world.”
Michael Orozco is representing Aitken in a civil suit against the officers who arrested Aitken, as well as the county that prosecuted him. Orozco said the judge, who was not re-appointed by Christie, did not instruct the jurors about exceptions to the law. Also, he said police officers should not have searched Aitken’s car when he was first arrested.
Aitken says he’ll continue speaking out.
“I’m working for more than just gun rights,” he said. “The Second Amendment is central, but my rights were violated.”
Read more: Hudson Reporter - A Hoboken man and his guns After fighting wrongful sentence gets nod for Reformer Award
christie should go to the event and explain why he commuted, not pardoned, this clearly innocent man.
disgusting to be honest. At least give him a slap on the wrist or something, and take the gun away if all he did was buy a legal gun and moved into a region that made it illegal
Christie is a complete RINO and a tard. He commuted, but did not pardon, Mr Aitken. In other words Christie left his felony conviction stand. Why? Because Christie is a gun banning freak.
I almost hope he *would* run for President so that gun-owners across the USA could help end his presidential campaign. Kinda like we ended Rudy Giulliani’s in 2008.
Mr Aitkin should CONTINUE to sue, litigate and seek to have his conviction overturned so that he has his full rights restored. As it now stands, among many other ongoing punishments he can not own a handgun - in New Jersey or anywhere else. Ironic and sad.
I know that NJ state police do not follow federal laws and the US Constitution, for transportation of firearms and WILL bust you and take your guns on a permanent trip to be dumped offshore in the deep ocean....
I hope Christy changes things but he is pretty much a RINO on guns and doubt he will
I would like to see the judge take a place next to the pedophiles in prison.
No, he didn't. The right thing would have been to give the guy a full pardon. He can no longer own weapons or vote, so his life is still being screwed up by a wrongful conviction for something he didn't really do.
WHY did he let the cops search his car?
Certainly the mother’s call is not “probable cause”
Indeed... Like being able to ( NOT BE A UNION ) Member... should be..
Wow!
The irony of this whole thing is that the sole purpose of the second amendment is to protect the people from this very form of government tyranny. The facts in this case are indisputable. The wrong individual/s were locked up. The people that should be in prison are the judge and any and all law enforcement or government personnel that had a part in this crime. Four words, Shall Not Be Infringed. These words leave ZERO room for crap like this.
Another reason to stay out of the people’s republic of NJ !
Either the GOP stands up behind the Second, or they can find work in the private sector.
He had magazines that exceeded 15 rounds. He did break that law, there is no dispute. They could have got him only for that and the whole "free Brian" thing wouldn't have had a leg to stand on.
The possession charges were bogus because he fell under the stated exemptions and the judicial misdeeds by the judge should have earned him a full pardon.
He's not a poster boy as far as I'm concerned. I very carefully navigate the laws in NJ and in NJ you own guns at your own peril. He should have looked further into the laws before he brought those magazines into the state. He failed due diligence.
The hollow point charge is a tack on charge. Hollow points are legal to own and shoot in NJ but if you break any other law and you have a hollow point on you, they just use it to punish you harder.
The important thing to take out of all of this is to NOT involve the police in anything you don’t have to.
Bullseye! I sure hope Brian’s mom sleeps well after destroying her sons life with an unnecessary call to 911. What a dope. He should have stayed as far away from her as possible. From what I’ve read, she’s a freakin’ psychopath.
Time for a nation wide boycott of New Jersey
A couple of years in prison wasn't enough?
if all he did was buy a legal gun and moved into a region that made it illegal
Too busy to read the article?
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