Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The Philadelphia mother whose case brought national attention to New Jersey's gun laws was allowed into pretrial intervention Thursday, after a clarification from the state attorney general changed the prosecutor's stance.
"I have no words for how I feel," Shaneen Allen said outside the courtroom. "I won't be going to jail and can stay home with my kids and get back to my life."
That includes finding work after losing her three jobs as a result of a felony charge hanging over her head.
Now, she wants to head to nursing school — a plan detoured after she was arrested and jailed for 46 days after she was stopped on the Atlantic City Expressway with her gun.
Allen appeared briefly before Superior Court Judge Michael Donio, who formally put on record that she had been entered into PTI, and that all motions have been withdrawn and all pending court dates — including an Oct. 20 trial — suspended.
The 27-year-old mother of two was heading to Harrah's Atlantic City on Oct. 1 when she was pulled over on the Atlantic City Expressway in Hamilton Township. She was arrested after telling the state trooper she had her gun and a concealed carry permit with her. She said she did not know about the law in New Jersey, where average citizens are not allowed to carry concealed weapons, even if they are legally registered.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain originally denied entry into the PTI program, citing the Graves Act, which increases penalties for gun charges in the state. He said cases concerning out-of-state legal gun owners coming into New Jersey illegally is so common that, if the Legislature had intended an exemption, it would have put one in.