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BATF agrees with leniency over gun violation
Josey1
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Good record keeps man out of prison
By Henry Pierson Curtis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 15, 2002
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Staying out of trouble for the past 12 years helped an Apopka man Wednesday avoid spending the rest of the decade in federal prison.
Since being released from prison in 1990, Larry Dee Suggs has married his childhood sweetheart, raised a family and led an admirable life, according to friends, federal agents, defense attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In April, he was arrested for pawning his stepson's shotgun three years earlier to buy $75 worth of groceries to feed his family.
His crime was signing a form that claimed he had never been convicted of a felony when he redeemed the shotgun a week after he pawned it.
Federal sentencing guidelines for anyone with Suggs' past -- four felony convictions in the 1980s for drug-related crimes -- set punishment at a minimum of eight years in prison, but everyone involved in the case, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who arrested Suggs, agreed justice would not have been served by sending the 38-year-old father of three back to prison.
"I never thought pawning this gun would give me so much trouble," Suggs told the judge. "To tell you the truth, I didn't give much thought about it."
Sentencing him to two years of probation, U.S. Senior Judge G. Kendall Sharp said, "You obviously have changed your life around and are a good citizen in the community."
"Thank you," gasped Suggs' wife from the back of the courtroom.
Then Sharp fined Suggs $75, saying he didn't want him to "get any benefit out of the offense."
Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5411.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-locsuggs15081502aug15.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
Copyright c 2002, Orlando Sentinel
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Henry Pierson Curtis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 15, 2002
Email this story to a friend
Printer friendly version
Staying out of trouble for the past 12 years helped an Apopka man Wednesday avoid spending the rest of the decade in federal prison.
Since being released from prison in 1990, Larry Dee Suggs has married his childhood sweetheart, raised a family and led an admirable life, according to friends, federal agents, defense attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In April, he was arrested for pawning his stepson's shotgun three years earlier to buy $75 worth of groceries to feed his family.
His crime was signing a form that claimed he had never been convicted of a felony when he redeemed the shotgun a week after he pawned it.
Federal sentencing guidelines for anyone with Suggs' past -- four felony convictions in the 1980s for drug-related crimes -- set punishment at a minimum of eight years in prison, but everyone involved in the case, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who arrested Suggs, agreed justice would not have been served by sending the 38-year-old father of three back to prison.
"I never thought pawning this gun would give me so much trouble," Suggs told the judge. "To tell you the truth, I didn't give much thought about it."
Sentencing him to two years of probation, U.S. Senior Judge G. Kendall Sharp said, "You obviously have changed your life around and are a good citizen in the community."
"Thank you," gasped Suggs' wife from the back of the courtroom.
Then Sharp fined Suggs $75, saying he didn't want him to "get any benefit out of the offense."
Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5411.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-locsuggs15081502aug15.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
Copyright c 2002, Orlando Sentinel
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878