Possession of 'Assault Weapons' in Connecticut

[ozzyleven]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Connecticut

I am writing on behalf of my finance. He was visiting his parents in CT for the holidays and last night an altercation broke out between him and his parents. He apparently smashed some dishes in the kitchen and was yelling, making suicidal threats, so they called the police. He DID NOT threaten anyone else in the house or make any threats regarding weapons. He was arrested for disorderly conduct and his parents requested he be given a psychiatric evaluation. When the police asked if there were any firearms in the house, his parents handed over his guns to the police that they were storing overnight because he feared they may get stolen from his truck.

Anyways, he was taken to a hospital drug tested, alcohol tested, and evaluated last night. He was able to call me and was under the impression he would be leaving in the morning, paying a fine on monday and coming home to Montana. This afternoon, I got a phone call from him and he had been transferred into the custody of the State Troopers. He told me his bail was $25,000 for the disorderly conduct and that he had pending charges for four felony counts of possessing assault weapons because some of his guns were not compliant with CT bans. He goes to court Monday and we are unfortunately not in a position of being able to afford a good lawyer and his parents are unwilling to help him.

I know these charges carry a mandatory minimum of one year in prison in CT. My question is what is the likelihood that these charges will stick and is there any chance they can get deferred into the form of probation? He is 25, has a clean record and all guns were legally purchased in Montana and are compliant in our home state. He tells me he was unaware that it was illegal for him to travel through the state with these guns and did not realize he needed a permit to move them through the state. He has only been in CT since the 24th of Dec. and had been planning on leaving this morning. Is there any chance these charges will get dropped? I know it was his responsibility to know the laws, but it was an honest mistake and these charges are resulting from an incident completely unrelated to the guns. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[flyingron]

He needs a lawyer. This is serious.

You're allowed to "TRAVEL THROUGH" states. He wasn't travelling at this point. With varied state laws if you're going to travel with firearms it behooves you to understand the specific state laws for where you're visiting.

Reading the law, it's possible this could get reduced to a misdemeanor, but it would take work, and even misdemeanor's are serious.

The fact that he was involved in domestic violence at the time doesn't bode well. There appear to be some psychiatric issues here.

[ozzyleven]

I'm not going to deny that there are some psychiatric issues, but I am very skeptical that he would get the help he needs in jail. Unfortunately, we are not in the position to hire a lawyer and he will be assigned a public defender, which also doesn't instill a lot of hope for me. If they could be reduced to misdemeanors, would that likely be a result of a plea bargain? And then, would he still serve jail time or something along the lines of probation? In my personal opinion, I think that probation with the conditions of mental health counseling/anger management would be the most positive thing for him. I don't think jail time will really solve anything.

[flyingron]

There's a first time clause in the statute for a misdemeanor.