Tried to Check Arms at Senate Office Building : Kennedy Bodyguard Caught With Guns

A private bodyguard hired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was arrested Jan. 7 as he entered a Senate office building with two automatic weapons, U.S. Capitol police said today.

The bodyguard, Charles J. Stein Jr., 47, a former policeman from San Fernando, Calif., was arrested at the entrance of the Russell Senate Office Building after he asked police where he could put his Beretta and Uzi submachine guns and ammunition, Lt. Jeffrey Zanotti said.

Stein was charged with various firearms violations and later released on his own recognizance. He is traveling with Kennedy and two of the senator’s sisters on a 12-day South American trip to discuss the debt crisis.

Bob Mann, Kennedy’s press secretary, told the Washington Post that Kennedy hired Stein because “the senator’s primary concern was leaving the city with adequate protection for himself and his sisters (Jean Smith and Pat Lawford), who are traveling with him.”

Hours before the party left the United States, Stein arrived at the Russell Senate Office Building and asked the guard where he could check his weapons, the Post said.

Stein, who is licensed to carry weapons in California but not in the District of Columbia, was placed under arrest.

“This was an unfortunate incident that occurred with very good intentions on the part of Mr. Stein and the part of the police. He was just trying to be up front by telling the guard about the guns,” Mann said.

The arrest prompted Kennedy to call Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III in an apparent effort to have Stein released and retrieve his weapons, according to a Justice Department source quoted by the Post.

Stein, who has been hired by Kennedy for several other trips, was ordered to leave his weapons in the United States because of a district law requiring that the arms be held for evidence and then destroyed.

U.S. embassies in each country on Kennedy’s itinerary are providing Stein with two semiautomatic weapons and Stein is to return the arms afterward, Mann said. The Kennedy party is visiting Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay.