what a f***ing joke this law is...
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Apr 19, 2007 4:29 pm US/Pacific
Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty To Possessing Rifle
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(CBS) LOS ANGELES A Culver City police sergeant has pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a semi-automatic rifle found while police investigated his wife’s 1992 slaying.
Harvey Bailey was sentenced to two years summary probation and ordered to serve 300 hours of community service after pleading to a misdemeanor charge, said Joel Isaacson, his attorney. He was initially charged with two felony counts of illegal possession of assault weapons, stemming from the recovery of the firearms during a March 31, 2006 search of Bailey’s 99th Street home, which he was renting to his in-laws.
Isaacson said he did not know what effect his client's plea would have on his position in the Culver City Police Department, where Bailey has worked for more than 28 years. The department does not comment on personnel matters, said Sgt. Randy Vickrey.
On Christmas Eve 1992, Bailey returned home from his office to find his wife strangled and bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of their South Los Angeles bungalow. Bailey, a two-time officer of the year, became the main suspect in the slaying a short time later. Los Angeles Police Department homicide detectives repeatedly questioned him, and prosecutors convened a grand jury to examine the case.
In the end, he was never charged in his wife's death. Bailey remarried and was promoted to lieutenant.
But years later, the LAPD again began examining the slaying of Jan Bailey, and the focus was again on the police veteran, according to the Los Angeles Times. LAPD detectives served search warrants at Bailey's two homes and his locker at Culver City police headquarters. Bailey was charged as a result of those searches.
Isaacson said Bailey purchased the firearms when they were lawful to possess, but failed to register them and legislation passed in the late 1980s and early 1990s prohibited their possession.