Judge Tosses Out SAFE Act Charge Against Lockport Man

 

 

 

” Lockport police violated Paul A. Wojdan’s constitutional rights by counting the bullets in his gun and charging him with violating New York’s SAFE Act, Lockport City Judge William J. Watson ruled Wednesday.

  Watson dismissed a misdemeanor charge against Wojdan, filed because the magazine of his 9 mm Ruger handgun contained 10 bullets, more than the limit of seven bullets per magazine under the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act.

  On Dec. 31, 2½ months after Wojdan’s Oct. 12 arrest, Chief U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny ruled that the seven-bullet rule was unconstitutional, the only portion of the law he did not uphold in his New Year’s Eve decision on a legal challenge to the SAFE Act, the gun-control law passed by the State Legislature at the behest of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in January 2013.

  However, Niagara County prosecutors kept working on the case against Wojdan until Watson ruled after a hearing that opening up the handgun’s magazine to count the bullets was an illegal search.

  Wojdan, 26, of Parkwood Drive, Lockport, wasn’t all that happy after court, despite the dismissal of the criminal charge, because he won’t immediately get all his firearms back.”

 

Buffalo News has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

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