Thread: Decorated Combat Veteran Arrested In New York: Charged W/ Possession AR Magazines

Decorated Combat Veteran Arrested In New York: Charged With 5 Felonies For Possession of AR Magazines

Robert Richardson
January 31st, 2013
Off Grid Survival
Comments (340)
Read by 23,471 people
In the latest attack on the American people, a decorated War Hero has been arrested and charged with five counts of third degree criminal possession of a weapon, for having empty 30 round AR-15 Magazines in his vehicle.

On Sunday January 6th Staff Sgt. Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran, was driving through Jefferson County New York when he was randomly pulled over for a vehicle check. Haddad, who had five 30 round empty magazines in his possession, was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and charged with five felony counts.

According to Haddad’s brother, Michael Haddad, Nathan thought these magazines were legally made before the New York Assault Weapons Ban. When Nathan Haddad was arrested the new ban had not even been fully enacted yet.

This is not a criminal, this is not some thug looking to hurt people; this is a decorated combat veteran who was recently honored by the Philadelphia chapter of Blue Star Mothers and the Union League’s Armed Services Council for helping disabled vets get back on their feet.

What’s happening to Army veteran Nate Haddad is an absolute attack on liberty. Here we have a man who honorably served his country, who was trusted with weaponry that far exceeded anything he was carrying, that now finds himself facing the possibility of spending years in prison.

Still think these gun control laws are meant to stop criminals?


Nathan Haddad’s brother has set up a legal defense fund for his brother who cannot afford to fight these charges on his own. We ask that you share this story with everyone you know so that this attack on Hassad is seen for what it is, an attack on every law abiding citizen in America.

Decorated Combat Veteran arrested in New York: Charged With 5 Felonies For Possession of AR Magazines

Part 1 of 2. Washington Times take on arrest.
MILLER: N.Y. vet arrested for 30-round magazines (Part 1)

By Emily Miller - The Washington Times

February 1, 2013

Army veteran Nate Haddad (left), an employee at Fort Drum’s Network Enterprise

Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran, was arrested earlier this month in New York for possessing unloaded 30-round magazines. Mr. Haddad, who has been recognized by the Army for his selfless acts of generosity to fellow soldiers, was charged with five felony counts of possession of “high-capacity” magazines.

Since 1994, magazines over 10 rounds have been illegal. This month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that makes any ammunition feeding device over 7 rounds illicit in New York. (Click here to read New York’s Radical Gun-Control Law.)

Mr. Haddad, who was medically discharged in 2010 after 12 years of service, was arrested when he was stopped by police on Jan. 6 in LeRay, Ny. Through his brother Michael, Mr. Haddad declined to comment on the cause until after his Feb. 20 conference date to meet with the prosecutor and the judge.

“He’s not proclaiming innocence,” Michael Haddad told me in a phone interview. “He thought he had something that was legal and it turned out that they weren’t.” Michael said that his brother told him that, “‘I was arrested. I was charged with a crime. It is what it is.’”

The case has brought national interest because of the comparison to NBC’s David Gregory, who ran afoul of the same law in Washington, D.C. Unlike Mr. Haddad, Mr. Gregory asked permission from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department in advance to possess the illegal 30-round magazine and was denied.

The anchor of “Meet the Press” went ahead anyway with it on national TV, but the attorney general for the District of Columbia refused to prosecute. (Click to read more about that decision: David Gregory Gets Off Scot Free.)Michael, who is raising money for a legal defense, said that his brother’s goal is only to get the charges reduced so he can go on with his life. “No one wants to spend 35 years in prison, least of all a decorated, combat, disabled veteran who has done nothing but good for veterans his whole life,” Michael said.

According to Jefferson County Sheriff’s office sources, Mr. Haddad was in the parking lot of a closed business at 7:30 p.m. when an officer asked him what he was doing. The police allege that the Fort Drum civilian employee said that he was meeting someone to sell the AR-15 style rifle magazines. A police source also said that the magazines were stamped with the words “Restricted. For military use only.”

For the possession of the magazines, Mr. Haddad was arrested, booked in county jail and charged with five counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, according to the arrest report. Mr. Haddad did not have his AR-15 rifle in the car, but it is unclear whether he had another firearm. Police say that he was in possession of a New York State carry permit. He was not charged with any other offenses.

These charges are considered “violent class D violent felony offenses” under New York state law and carry a punishment that ranges widely from conditional discharge to seven years in state prison. (The five charges would be served concurrently.)Kristyna S. Mills, the chief assistant district attorney for Jefferson County, is prosecuting the case. “It’s against the law to possess these types of devices,” she told me in an interview Friday. “He was arrested in accordance with possession of these devices, and it’s our job to prosecute those cases that run amok of the law.”


Read more: MILLER: N.Y. vet arrested for 30-round magazines (Part 1) - Washington Times
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

MILLER: Vet arrested for 'high-capacity' magazines in New York (Part 2)

By Emily Miller
02/06/2013

Former Army Staff Sgt. Nathan Haddad was arrested in LeRay, Ny. earlier this year for possessing five 30-round magazines, which are perfectly legal nearly everywhere else in the country. New York passed a law in 1994 prohibiting magazines over 10 rounds.

For this, the veteran of the war in Iraq, who devotes his free time to supporting other veterans, was thrown in jail and charged with five felonies and faces a maximum of seven years in state prison.

If he is convicted of even one felony, he will lose his Second Amendment right for life. “He’s not proclaiming innocence,” Sgt. Haddad’s brother Michael said in a phone interview. “He thought he had something that was legal and it turned out that they weren’t.” This is part two of the series.

Click here to read part one.

On Jan. 6, the Jefferson County police coincidentally turned up at the same place and time as a meeting where Sgt. Haddad, now a civilian employee at Fort Drum, was to sell the empty AR-15 type rifle magazines. He did not have the rifle with him, so there was no threat of violence.

The soldier was asked what he was doing. Believing he was not committing a crime, Sgt. Haddad told the police officer what he was selling. The police looked at the bottom of the magazines to see if date stamp, and then arrested Sgt. Haddad because the items were made after 1994. (Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed the Empire State again so that magazines will be limited to seven rounds maximum.)

In a phone interview Friday, the prosecutor in Sgt. Haddad’s case, Kristyna S. Mills, asked me why there was so much interest in this case. The chief assistant district attorney for Jefferson County said her office prosecutes these types of cases “all the time.”

I explained that NBC News anchor David Gregory possessed the same 30-round magazine in Washington, D.C. — which has the same 10-round limit – but the attorney general for the District of Columbia, Irvin Nathan, refused to prosecute. Mr. Nathan wrote the lawyer hired by NBC that his decision was influenced by “the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States, especially while this subject was foremost in the minds of the public following the previously mentioned events in Connecticut and the President’s speech to the nation about them.”

I asked Ms. Mills how she felt about the different prosecutorial styles in New York and the District.

“It is not our job to decide if the legislature was right in making the determination that it is illegal. It is our our job to prosecute and see that justice is done,” she told me in a phone interview Friday. “So if an arrest is made, we’re going to look at all equities of the case and make a determination about how we go forward.”

Ms. Mills explained that possession of a “large capacity feeding device” (the legal term for a magazine) over 10 rounds in New York comes with a charge of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, which is a violent class D violent felony offense in New York state.

She said sentencing for this offense was wide open. It could be any of the following: conditional discharge, probation, a year in local jail or two to seven years in state prison.

If Sgt. Haddad is given jail time, the sentences would be served concurrently for the five charges because they occurred at the same time. Michael Haddad, started an online fundraising effort for his brother’s legal defense.

“I’m just trying to raise money for this disabled vet who can’t afford $10,000 or $20,000 in legal fees,” Michael told me in a phone interview Friday. “I figured I’d raise a couple hundred dollars. And in three days, I raised $8,000 from total strangers.

”Since the effort has already brought in over $33,000, Michael asked his brother, who goes by Nate, what he wanted to do with the extra money. “My brother said, ‘We’re going to give it to veterans.’ So my brother — the hardened criminal — wants to donate money given to him to other veterans.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/guns/2013/feb/6/miller-vet-arrested-high-capacity-magazines-new-yo/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/death-docto...rearms-272009/