By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Michigan State Senator Virgil Smith, Jr., (D, naturally, Detroit) has to reach a plea agreement with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office before a Feb. 5 pretrial hearing or face a March 7 jury trial, The News-Herald reported Monday. If parties can’t agree by the hearing, no deal will be allowed.
“Smith, who served three years in the state House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, is accused of opening fire with an AR-15 in the direction of his ex-wife, Anistia Thomas, and her Mercedes about 1 a.m. May 10,” Michigan Live explained. “The altercation occurred after Thomas arrived at Smith’s home and found another woman, Tatiana Grant, naked in her ex-husband’s bed.”
Sordid soap opera details aside, what’s of note for gun rights advocates is that Smith has a record of hostility to their concerns. Per Project Vote Smart, he was rated “D” by the NRA’s Political Victory Fund, and “was rated 0% by Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners.”
Smith’s political inclination to control others stands in sharp contrast to a seeming inability to control himself. Earlier impaired driving citations could have resulted in a felony charge had the judge not thrown a third case out due to police “errors” resulting in inadmissible evidence. Despite a roadside test showing a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit, officers failed to perform a field sobriety test. By the time he was transported to the precinct and given a court-admissible test, he was just under the legal limit, plus officers had failed to perform required observation.
Additionally, the prosecutor at that time said there was no conflict of interest despite father Virgil Smith, Sr., being a circuit court judge, as well as a term-limited politician whose son filled his vacancy. By all official accounts, connections that allowed Smith the Younger to rise to power have had nothing to do with him holding on to it after all his self-inflicted legal wounds.
If all this sounds crazy, arguments made by Smith’s defense attorney, Godfrey Dillard may shed some light into what kind of plea his client intends to make.
“Smith will assert at the trial of this matter a substantial disorder of thought or mood significantly impaired his judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or ability to cope with ordinary demands of life,” Dillard asserted in a court filing, leading to speculation that an insanity defense could be used.
What’s truly insane is that politicians like Smith have any say whatsoever on the rights of citizens who do not share their moral defects and lack of self-control. What’s flat-out nuts is a constituency that continues to reward thugs and degenerates with political power, and an establishment that relies on such corrupt symbioses.
Unsurprisingly, while they’re all over the issue in terms of who they’ll allow to own a gun, no one in power has broached a mental health qualification as a requirement to hold public office. Or to vote.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and also posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.