Akron Council President Marco Sommerville is scheduled to appear in Barberton Municipal Court this afternoon, where he's formally charged with packing a gun through the TSA checkpoint at Akron-Canton Airport en route to a National League of Cities convention in New Orleans last week.
If you haven't heard about this story yet it's because you didn't read a paper, surf the web, listen to a radio or watch TV; given the usual holiday dearth of hard news this one easily bubbled to the top for the Akron newsies given the powerful combination of political power and "what was he thinking?" content.
Marco was supposed to visit with WAKR's Ray Horner this morning but it's not a real surprise defense lawyer Bob Meeker stepped in; if it were my client (I'm playing lawyer on the web now) I would've weighed in with a "what ARE you thinking NOW?" about going on the air, even for an apology, before all my legal ducks were in a row. I note, however, that Marco did phone Ray to talk with him early this morning and explain the reasoning and Meeker did the same thing a few hours later.
So here's the way it should play: we'll find out this afternoon is the Marco charges will be bumped up to the feds. The FBI reportedly examined the case but it could go either way; there was no intent to break the law and when it comes to criminal charges "intent" is the operative word. For all those screaming for Marco's head on a platter and accusing him of getting preferential treatment it is important to note the handful of folks who've screwed up and forgot about their guns in other CAK cases were also allowed to continue their travel and face the music when they got home. The tune played usually wound up as a plea to a misdemeanor, public service and a fine.
Does anyone really believe Marco intended to pack a gun for the flight to New Orleans? Is the airline snack service that bad that you need to hold attendants at gunpoint for a bag of nuts rather than pretzels.
Big mistake, not thinking doesn't lead to jail time in these cases. Whether it should is another story and something TSA reportedly wants to get a handle on so at least the pursuit of the law is uniform at each airport around the country.
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