Weird parallels between a single mom, a jailed Marine and Ray Rice

A driver carrying a legally registered gun crosses a border and is stopped by authorities. The driver, who is not trying to hide anything, volunteers that a gun is in the car. In the jurisdiction where the driver has been stopped, possessing such a weapon is illegal. Tough luck for the driver, who is arrested, carted off to jail, charged with violating gun laws and may spend years in prison.

Sound familiar?

I’m not talking about Andrew Tahmooressi, the 25-year-old Marine reservist who crossed into Mexico from San Ysidro last spring with three loaded guns in his truck and has been sitting in a Mexican prison ever since.

I’m talking about Shaneen Allen, a 27-year-old South Philadelphia mother of two who was arrested last October as she drove from her home to Atlantic City, where she planned to celebrate her younger son’s third birthday.

Around 1 a.m., just outside of Atlantic City, she briefly drifted into another lane and was pulled over by a New Jersey state trooper. As she reached into the back seat for her purse, she said, she explained to the trooper that she was carrying a concealed weapon, for which she had a legal license.

But her valid Pennsylvania concealed carry permit meant nothing in New Jersey, which has stringent gun laws. She was arrested, and spent six hours in jail. Things would soon get much, much worse for her.

To those who believe that Tahmooressi is facing a particularly Mexican version of justice, and who have used the occasion of his legal woes to slam Mexico for having the gall to prosecute him over an innocent mistake, think again. These sorts of legal tangles are American as apple pie.

Allen’s attorney, Evan Nappen, blames what he calls “a crazy patchwork quilt” of laws that govern “concealed weapon reciprocity” from state to state. For instance, New Jersey and California are among nine states that flatly refuse to recognize out-of-state permits for concealed weapons.

Some gun advocates are using this case to agitate for a new federal law, proposed by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, that would allow anyone who is permitted to carry a concealed handgun in one state to be able to carry it in another. But other gun proponents, who object to the very concept of licensing, believe the federal government has no place in the debate.

Personally, I think if you plan to carry a gun across a state line, you need to be smart enough to check the laws in the state you are entering. Allen said she took an NRA gun safety course. But did the NRA bother to highlight this important detail, particularly in a part of the country where people frequently cross state lines to work, shop and recreate?

Allen ended up spending 46 days in jail after missing a New Jersey court date that she says she was not aware of. “I’ve never been in jail before,” she said. “It was the worst time of my life.”

She applied for New Jersey’s “pre-trial intervention” program, which offers first-time offenders an alternative to incarceration in the form of monitoring, community service, restitution, and participation in treatment programs. The goal, according to the New Jersey Judiciary’s website, is “to render early rehabilitative services, when such services can reasonably be expected to deter future criminal behavior.” If the program is successfully completely, the crime is erased from a person’s record.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who punched Janay Palmer last February in an Atlantic City casino elevator, is being allowed to participate in such a program after being charged with aggravated assault.

Don Van Natta Jr. and John Barr of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” reported last week that Rice’s acceptance into the PTI program was highly unusual. They found that defendants in less than 1% of all New Jersey domestic violence cases resolved between 2010 and 2013 were allowed to participate in PTI, which is supposed to be applied to victimless crimes and crimes that do not involve violence.

Van Natta and Barr quoted an advocate for battered women who was outraged that Rice was accepted for diversion and a veteran New Jersey defense attorney, who said he had never heard of PTI being approved for a violent crime like Rice’s.

Allen’s request for PTI, however, was denied.

“Not only was she denied PTI,” said her attorney, “but the ‘best deal’ offered by the state is five years in state prison, with a three-and-a-half year minimum mandatory sentence with no chance of parole.”

So, in the same state: A man shown on tape viciously assaulting a loved one will do no jail time, and a woman who innocently carried a legal gun across state lines is looking at more than three years in prison.

Whatever your feelings about guns, this seems deeply unjust.

“This is not really about gun control,” said Nappen, “because both, let’s just say ‘sides’ are supportive: The Kelly Files [Fox News] and Anderson Cooper [CNN]. The National Review and the Washington Post. The Huffington Post and World Net Daily. This is an injustice created by New Jersey’s laws and a failure, currently, of the prosecutor to use his discretion.”

The NRA has taken up the case with gusto, posting a video rant on its website by Colion Noir, an African American gun proponent who in typically overheated NRA fashion sarcastically thanks “all anti-gunners around the world for perpetuating the very cycle that contributes to the violence in this country, all the while providing an example to young men that it’s OK to beat women as long as you can throw a football.”

But why, exactly, did the prosecutor in the Rice case allow PTI, while the prosecutor in the Allen case denied it?

Excellent question, especially since Atlantic County Prosecutor James McClain is handling both cases. (And both cases are being heard by the same New Jersey Superior Court judge, Michael Donio, as well.)

A spokesman for McClain said he could not discuss the case because it is an active prosecution.

But last week, shortly before a scheduled pre-trial conference, Prosecutor McClain unexpectedly asked the judge to postpone the hearing for three weeks to reconsider his recommendation, Nappen said.

“If he says he changed his position and puts her in PTI,” said Nappen, “the matter will be resolved.” If not, the case will proceed to trial.

Already, though, the fallout has been catastrophic for Allen.

While she was in jail, she lost her healthcare jobs (she worked as a phlebotomist, a medical assistant and a nurse’s aide). Her cars were repossessed, her cable and electricity have been shut off, and she is being evicted from her home of 12 years.

“I still can’t believe I am going through this. I am numb. I have no one to help me. I can’t even watch myself on TV.”’

And she is furious about Rice’s treatment. “Because you are a football player, you get special treatment. It’s not fair for Janay and it’s not fair for me.”

Tahmooressi has been in a Mexican prison for nearly six months, and is currently on trial in federal court in Tijuana.

Rice has lost his job with the Ravens but has not spent a moment under lock and key.

Hard to know what lessons we should draw from these strangely related cases. It does seem to me that the law has come down harshly on two unfortunates who erred about taking guns across borders, while the rich and famous guy who actually inflicted serious injury avoids any jail time at all.

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