Posted on 09/22/2006 12:23:01 PM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- Fadi Mohammad didn't think there was anything wrong with storing a gun in the center console of his car.
He found out differently when he was charged with illegally carrying the weapon during an arrest for drunken driving in Louisville.
When his case went to court, a judge dismissed the charges, saying the center console fell under a provision in Kentucky law allowing guns to be carried in a glove compartment.
But the Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated both charges on Thursday in a split decision issued in Frankfort, saying a center console is not a glove compartment.
"A glove compartment is a small storage cabinet in the dashboard of an automobile," Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer wrote in the opinion.
Mohammad's attorney, Larry Simon of Louisville, did not immediately return calls seeking comment Thursday. Bill Patterson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case, said he's glad the court clarified the law.
"When it gets to court, it's going to be easier to define if a crime took place," Patterson said.
The opinion, backed by four justices, centered on what constituted a glove compartment and whether the Kentucky General Assembly intended to include other compartments built into the cab of a vehicle when it allowed gun owners to carry weapons inside their vehicles.
Kentucky's concealed weapons law allows someone to carry a gun in the car, either in the glove compartment "regularly installed in a motor vehicle by its manufacturer," on the seat or in the trunk.
Mohammad asked a Jefferson County judge to dismiss the charges, saying the center console between the seats qualified as a glove compartment under the law. The judge agreed and dismissed the charges. The Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned that decision and sent the case to the state Supreme Court.
Wintersheimer wrote that the General Assembly didn't include all manufactured-installed compartments in the car, which means they must have meant to include only the glove compartment in the exception.
"Whether gloves fit into other compartments is immaterial because the phrase 'glove compartment' was expressly adopted by the General Assembly and retains the plain meaning as a compartment located in the dashboard of a vehicle," Wintersheimer wrote.
In a separate opinion, Justice Will T. Scott said the majority opinion refers to a compartment that always has a "locking mechanism," a requirement not listed in the General Assembly's definition of glove compartment.
"Moreover, there is nothing in the statute that requires it to be in the 'dash board,' much less on the 'face' of the dash board, as is commonly assumed," Scott wrote in an opinion joined by Chief Justice Joseph Lambert.
Scott also noted that several newer vehicles do not have glove compartments as defined by the majority of the court.
The legislature should amend the law to correct the court's ruling, because the Supreme Court cannot amend the law on its own, Scott wrote.
"That's all the better reason to reinsert 'console compartment, or some other similar compartment' back into the statute," Scott wrote. "But, that of course is not for us to do."
Sounds like just another way to turn honest folks into criminals by judicial fiat to me.
""A glove compartment is a small storage cabinet in the dashboard of an automobile," Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer wrote in the opinion."
Bullcrap!
Both my TransAm and Corvette have no 'storage cabinet' in the dashboard. They only have a center console which is also the 'glove box'.
Talk about nit picking.
Never thought I'd be coming down on the side of a guy named Mohammed. Not this century, at any rate.
*file under "judicial insanity:*
It's a lot easier to get to if it's in the center console. If you're being jacked you don't want to have to fumble through the glovebox to get your piece.
I'd be more concerned that somebody named Mohammad was carrying a gun AT ALL.
And what does this have to do with the cost of tea in China? If the sun isn't seen at the North Pole in mid of winter it doesn't reduce the definition of the sun. On second thought, maybe it does in this judge's mind.
"It's a lot easier to get to if it's in the center console."
That's probably why the judges reversed the ruling.
To make it fair for the criminal.
Who the heck is the judge to define the definition of a glove compartment? If he thinks it needs further definition he should throw it back to the legislature.
A pathetic case of splitting glove leather.
Gloves CAN be stored in the center console.
Have the courts nothing better to do?
So the gun could be on the seat, but not in the console? What rubbish, and whaddabunchamaroons.
Perhaps Fadi should have gotten a Jewish attorney.
Unfortuantely, I agree with the Supreme Court here.
What color is your 'vette?
(This is not a joke question.)
Does anyone know more of Fadi Mohammad's story? Why was he pulled over in the first place?
From what I've read in this article, the Supremes ruling is ridiculous. What difference does it make if one stores a gun in a glove compartment or a console between the seats?
Why?
Blue
'84
Well, he wasn't charged with possession by a person prohibited, or anything similar, so I'm going to assume that he's a law-abiding citizen.
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