Local news reports
Sheriff's deputies in Livingston County say a 30-year-old man is facing reckless endangerment charges after an accidental shooting in Caledonia on Saturday.
Investigators say Kenneth Rogers accidently shot 28-year-old Jeffrey Wilkin in the face with a rifle that contained bird shot. Wilkin was taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injures and is expected to survive.
Deputies say both men were drinking prior to the shooting.
Rogers is charged with reckless endangerment. He is being held in the Livingston County Jail in lieu of $1,000 cash bail.
Is reckless endangerment even a felony? If so, maybe he can plea bargain it down a bit.
Why do you ask questions you could find the answers to with a 2 second google search?
ReplyDeleteApparently in NY there are 1st degree (felony) and 2nd degree (highest misdemeanor) reckless endangerment. Insufficient info in the article to say which one this is.
Such a structure is one of the few occasions where I could see a plea bargain being reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor--maybe--since there isn't anything explicitly referencing the use of a weapon automatically pushing it into the felony category as usually happens in assault statutes. That being said, it's possible there is precedent for guns automatically pushing you into the felony category--don't know NY law on that. Also possible that the DA will go for that and be a hardass on the felony count, only reducing the time served in the deal rather than the severity of the charge--depends on the local DA.
Birdshot in a rifle? That's odd.
ReplyDeleteGreg, I don't if this was used, however a single shot 45 long colt rifle loaded with a 410 shot shell containing bird shot or snake shot works really well.
DeleteI've seen .22, .38, and .44 shot shells, and maybe some old .45 Colt, all of which could be put in a rifle if you didn't care about hitting anything. Actually saw a muzzle break that was supposed to work against the rifling, stop the spin, and give you an normal spread from such a rifle--was and old antique in a guy's collection. He claimed it worked reasonably well.
DeleteIndeed, but as I said, notice how unusual those are. The shotshells are generally used in handguns by people concerned about snakes. If you're going to carry a long gun, most people will make it a shotgun, if that's what is needed.
DeleteWell, this being New York, perhaps people up there have to make do with whatever they can get.
You say this as if you're not a big fan of the plea bargaining process. I thought you are all about the law being written with ridiculously harsh penalties, and then the lawyers and judges work it down to what it really should be.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with the plea bargaining system, per se, but I don't like idiot gun owners to get a slap on the wrist and retain their gun rights.
DeleteMikeb, you keep forgetting that crimes like this make a person a prohibited person most of the time.
DeleteNo, Greg, I'm afraid that's not true. Many times they aren't even charged. Other cases are plea-bargained down. Still others are charged too lightly and receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
DeleteMisbehavior with guns is not taken seriously enough - as I continually point out.