A pig, a goat, and a semi-automatic

While all criminal cases are serious, from time-to-time, some do have a humorous element to them.  For instance, I recently concluded representation of a client, who, along with her husband, was charged with transporting a firearm across state lines for purposes of selling the gun, without a proper license to do so (a crime carrying up to five years in prison).  What happened is that my client's husband posted an ad on Craigslist, seeking to acquire a used car for the couple's son.  In lieu of paying cash only for the car, the husband specified in the ad that he was willing to compensate the car-owner with, amongst other things, an obese pig, a goat, and ... a firearm (as you might have guessed, my client and her husband reside on a farm).

It is not uncommon for law enforcement agents to troll Craigslist, looking for ads that in some fashion run afoul of the law, like, for instance, ones offering to transport a firearm into Maryland for purposes of sale, without the seller being licensed to conduct such a transaction.  So, when the police came across this particular ad, they responded, in the guise of a car owner who was willing to trade a used car for the gun (but not the pig or the goat).  Thereafter, a series of e-mails went back and forth between my client, her husband, and the undercover police agent, ultimately resulting in my client and her husband agreeing to drive down from Pennsylvania, with the gun (but not the pig or the goat), believing they would be swapping the gun (but not the pig or the goat) for the car.  In actuality, when my client and her husband showed up at the pre-arranged meeting location, with the gun in tow, they were instead placed under arrest.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, as the charges against my client were dismissed, and her husband received probation before judgment (which is not a conviction under Maryland law).  Alas, no word on the fate of the pig or the goat.

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