The prosecuting attorney in the New Jersey Shaneen Allen gun possession case was granted an adjournment in the proceedings “while he reviews the appropriate resolution of her case,” according to an NRA News Facebook posting.
“Shaneen is the Philadelphia mother of two who became an unwitting victim of New Jersey’s gun laws,” the Facebook post continued. “Stay tuned for the exclusive interview with Ginny Simone and Shaneen’s attorney Evan Nappen coming soon.”
Allen, a Philadelphia resident with a spotless criminal record, was stopped for a minor traffic violation while driving in New Jersey. Without being asked, she advised the officer that she had a legally-purchased gun in her purse as well as a Pennsylvania concealed weapons permit.
She was arrested and charged with felony weapons possession under New Jersey law.
Since her arrest in October, the Allen case has drawn nationwide attention due mainly to the district attorney’s dogged insistence in prosecuting the young mother to the full extent of the law.
USA Today columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds noted a bit of hypocrisy exhibited by the district attorney handling the Allen case last month:
When Ray Rice beat his wife unconscious in an elevator, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Michael Donio and New Jersey District Attorney Jim McClain agreed to put him in a diversion program for 1st-time offenders to keep him out of jail. But when Pennsylvania single mom Shaneen Allen was pulled over for a traffic violation and volunteered to a New Jersey police officer that she was carrying a legally-owned handgun with a Pennsylvania permit, the response of Donis and McClain was to deny her the same opportunity as Rice.
There’s no question but that Allen should have reviewed New Jersey’s gun laws before transporting her weapon into the Garden State. But with the exception of that single misstep, she’s a law-abiding citizen.
Ray Rice’s criminal culpability, however, is unquestioned–and he knew it himself the moment he knocked his future wife unconscious in that Las Vegas elevator and dragged her body out. But maybe his autograph was worth more to the prosecutor than was Allen’s.
Shortly after the prosecutor’s announcement, NRA News tweeted the following video of NRA’s’ “Cam & Company” interview with Evan Nappen, Allen’s attorney, as well as Ginny Simone from NRA News:
ICYMI: #BREAKING news from #ShaneenAllen’s attorney, on her case in Atlantic County, New Jersey – https://t.co/3fzy7FeOoG #NRA #2A
— NRA News (@nranews) September 12, 2014
Meanwhile, New Jersey Assemblyman Ron Dancer has introduced “Shaneen’s Law,” legislation that would give judges the option of not sending citizens like Allen to prison.
Here’s an NRA News report of the case and Dancer’s legislation, by Ginny Simone.
