California: "Court records show Issa arrested twice on weapons charges"

[cuchulainn]

from the A.P

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6218331.htm

Court records show Issa arrested twice on weapons charges

Posted on Wed, Jul. 02, 2003

Court records show Issa arrested twice on weapons charges

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - Within months of leaving the Army in the early 1970s, Rep. Darrell Issa was arrested twice on illegal-weapons charges, including an incident in Michigan that led to a misdemeanor gun conviction.

Issa, a wealthy businessman and two-term Republican congressman from the San Diego area, is bankrolling an effort to place an initiative to recall Gov. Gray Davis on the California ballot. Issa has said he will run for governor himself if the effort is successful.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that court records show Issa was arrested twice in 1972 on weapons charges - once in Ohio, once in Michigan. After the Michigan arrest, Issa was fined $100 and put on three months' probation, court records show.

Responding to the charges, Issa implied that the issue of his gun conviction was personal and old, and should not be a factor in the campaign.

"If you are looking at 30-year-old misdemeanors, I think you are missing the point," Issa told the Chronicle. "It's the felonies of Gray Davis that are on trial here today. What the governor has done to California is a felony."

The Chronicle reported Wednesday that Issa was also involved in an incident in Ohio months before the Michigan arrest. Court records in Issa's hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, show that in March 1972, one month after getting out of the Army, Issa was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and auto theft. The incident, which involved Issa's older brother William, involved an alleged theft of a Maserati sports car from an auto dealership.

In May 1972, a grand jury indicted Issa on a larceny charge related to the car theft but dropped the weapons charge. Two weeks later, a prosecutor dropped the car theft charge as well.

In a news conference Tuesday, gun control groups showed a video in which Issa's 1998 campaign for the U.S. Senate ran a booth at a southern California gun show where high-powered weapons and Nazi memorabilia were being sold. The groups said Issa would threaten assault-weapons laws as governor.

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle

 

[Henry Bowman]

The groups said Issa would threaten assault-weapons laws as governor.

Let's hope so!

 

[BerettaNut92]

The groups said Issa would threaten assault-weapons laws as governor.

I'm not voting for him if he doesnt. We might as well keep Gray Davis.

 

[Drjones]

"If you are looking at 30-year-old misdemeanors, I think you are missing the point,"

Indeed. Unless you are some flaming liberal looking to drudge up any bit of mud you can find to sling in a childish attempt to discredit someone's character.

May I ask what was your point in posting this article?

At this point I'm almost willing to have a registered sex offender as governor so long as he's not a Democrat.

Let the mudslinging begin, eh?

 

[Preacherman]

Fairly typical Davis spin. He did this to all his opponents in the election - "if you can't win on facts, smear the reputation or character of the opponent". Expect more of the same. Wonder what he'll do if Ahnold runs against him? "Republican candidate used steroids!"

OTOH, I'm not sure that the California situation will even come to a recall election. I'm willing to bet that if it looks as if a recall bid will succeed, Davis will resign and hand over the reins of power to his deputy governor, so that the Democrats will retain power.

 

[cuchulainn]

May I ask what was your point in posting this article?

I posted it because it's about developments in a gun-political issue that many THRers are interested in.



cuwheredidthatcomefromchulainn

 

[Drjones]

It's about developments in a gun-political issue that many THRers are interested in.

Um...okaaaaay....

Can you see how most of us are probably going to question your motives in posting this article since it is simply a big handful of mud being slung at this man?

Had you at least highlighted the part about him being a threat to gun-control groups, I would have been a bit less suspicious, but not much.

 

[cuchulainn]

Dude, why are you trolling for a fight with me?

most of us are probably going to question your motives in posting this article

Most? You're all by your lonesome on that.

 

[Ledbetter]

Don't be afraid of information

I want to know what the other side is doing. "Know thine enemy."

 

[Bruce H]

Don't worry cuchulainn just more "My way or the highway". Need to have both sides to make any kind of informed decision. Look at the person behind any argument. One issue does not a person make.