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Knimrod
04-27-2006, 08:34 PM
Search by ATF called politics
April 26, 2006
DEAN BOHN
THE SAGINAW NEWS

Time will tell if federal agents will return with arrest warrants after carting away numerous firearms from the home of an embattled Brady Township official whose husband is a convicted felon.

Federal law says felons cannot own firearms.

While Clerk Melissa Alcorn is at odds with the township supervisor, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Tuesday morning focused on her husband, Douglas A. Alcorn, 41, who served a month in jail and four years of probation, the first two on electronic tether.

He pleaded no contest in 1993 to a charge of second-degree child abuse. In return, prosecutors dismissed a count of first-degree child abuse, court records show.

Court documents show his first wife filed the charges two months into their marriage.

The Alcorns refused comment. William A. Temple, special agent in charge of the ATF's Detroit office who supervised the raid at Alcorn's home, also would not comment.

Arnold D. Dunchock of Corunna, an attorney for the Alcorns, said the firearms were in a gun safe in the home and Douglas Alcorn "did not have access to them."

"They were not arrested," Dunchock said. "If this is so terrible, why were they not taken away?"

However, Dunchock acknowledged, "this doesn't mean they might not be (arrested) in the future."

Dunchock said the family is incensed that agents "apprehended" Melissa Alcorn while she was driving home after dropping one of her four children off to school and conducted the search of their home in front of their other three children.

She has bickered for months with Brady Township Supervisor John Schoch, who faces a recall election Tuesday.

While Schoch blames Alcorn for orchestrating the recall, the timing of the raid prompted the Alcorns' attorney to complain about political motivations.

"This happened one week before the recall election," Dunchock said. "It's not like these were weapons of mass destruction. This (situation) was stable for years. Why now?

"It's obviously politically motivated. The family is being victimized, especially with the recall election on Tuesday."

Dunchock suggested that Schoch prompted the ATF search on the couple in retaliation for the recall effort, but Schoch said he knew nothing about the raid until it happened.

"They're slinging mud," Schoch said. "He's a felon, he's got guns in the house, and somehow they want to say all this is my fault."

The recall election follows months of arguing between Alcorn and Schoch. A Saginaw County Sheriff's Department report shows the Alcorns accused Police Chief Larry Briggs and Schoch of separately swiping their mail, including money from children's birthday cards and a government check.

Schoch and Briggs deny the claim, and no evidence of such offenses exists beyond the Alcorns' allegations, deputies concluded. Briggs was not present at the ATF raid.

A U.S. Army veteran, Douglas Alcorn makes and sells knives. The entrance to his 40-acre home at 14687 Fordney is framed with a "Fort Alcorn" sign above the driveway.

Behind his home he has a shooting range accentuated with a large pavilion. v

Link to story (http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1146057721280470.xml?sanews?NESP&coll=9)

One of Many
04-28-2006, 04:57 PM
When did it become illegal for the spouse of a felon to possess firearms?

The guns were secured in a safe. The Felon did not have access to the guns.

How can the BATFE justify depriving the wife of her right to own firearms, on the basis of her husband's felony conviction? Did they have photographic evidence showing him in possession of some of the firearms; did they have eye witness accounts of the husband in possession of firearms? If they did have this evidence, the wife should be arrested and charged with supplying firearms to a convicted felon, and the husband arrested and charged with felon in possession; that neither one was charged at the time the guns were confiscated, seems to me to be indicative of an illegal confiscation in violation of her civil rights. If there is probable cause to confiscate firearms as evidence, then there is probable cause to arrest the suspects.