"Judge won't face charges for having gun at Detroit airport"

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Judge won't face charges for having gun at airport
BY BEN SCHMITT
The Detroit (MI) Free Press


A polygraph exam helped investigators decide not to charge a district court
judge with a crime for taking a loaded handgun to Detroit Metropolitan
Airport this summer, her attorney said today.

Judge Sylvia James of 22nd District Court in Inkster was stopped July 28
after employees found a gun in her purse during a baggage check at the
airport's McNamara Terminal. She was on her way to Atlanta with her mother.

Her attorney, Elliot Hall, said James simply forgot that she had the gun
with her. 

Hall said James has a concealed weapons permit and carries a gun because of
several death threats. 

He said she agreed to a polygraph examination in which she convinced
authorities that she did not knowingly carry the gun. 

"She passed with flying colors," Hall said. 

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office was appointed to handle the case by
the Attorney General's office because Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
knows James. 

In a Nov. 13 memo, Assistant Washtenaw County Konrad Siller said there was
insufficient proof to show that James knowingly possessed the .38-caliber
Smith & Wesson. 

"First, Ms. James was well behind schedule to make the flight," Siller
wrote. "Moreover, Ms. James' attention was certainly divided as her mother
was being transported by a wheelchair. These facts are consistent with Ms.
James statement that in her haste she forgot the handgun was in her purse."


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