Prosecutor Drops Prison Threat Against Gun Owner Who Mistakenly Thought Her Pennsylvania Carry Permit Was Good in New Jersey

Good news from Atlantic County, New Jersey:
It looks like Shaneen Allen, the Philadelphia gun owner who

faced a mandatory minimum sentence of three and a half years
for driving across the Delaware River with a pistol in her purse,
will escape prison after all. The Press of Atlantic
City reports
that Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain, who initially
refused to approve Allen for a pretrial diversion program, has
changed his mind.

McClain cited a memo issued today by acting Attorney General
John Hoffman, who told local prosecutors that “imprisonment is
neither necessary nor appropriate to serve the interests of justice
and protect public safety” in cases like Allen’s. “In applying the
factors set out in the clarification,” McClain said, “I determined
that the defendant in this case should be offered the opportunity
to be admitted into the Atlantic County PTI [Pretrial Intervention]
Program.”

Hoffman’s memo looks like a face-saving excuse for McClain, who
more than a week ago
signaled that he was reconsidering his hard-line approach to
Allen’s case, which had attracted nationwide attention. But if
sparing McClain additional embarrassment is what it takes for him
to abandon a clearly unjust prosecution, it’s a small price to pay.
Furthermore, Hoffman’s memo should help similarly situated
defendants. The Press says “the clarification also means
McClain will now review other similar cases that have been denied
PTI in the past.”

Allen was
arrested last October after she was pulled over on the Atlantic
City Expressway for a minor traffic violation and volunteered to
the state trooper that she had a gun in her purse. She erroneously
believed that her Pennsylvania carry permit was good in New Jersey,
and for that mistake McClain was prepared to put her behind bars
for years, separating her from her two young sons. McClain’s
predecessor and prosecutors in other counties took a more lenient
approach, commonly approving PTI for defendants like her. But until
now McClain had argued that New Jersey law did not allow such
exceptions.