Patterson is mulling an appeal of his permit revocation; the Idaho Statesman reported on Sunday that the Ada County sheriff revoked his permit after discovering that he lied twice, in 2007 and 2012, on his permit application. The form asks if the applicant has ever had a withheld judgment for a felony offense. Patterson didn’t disclose his 1974 guilty plea and withheld judgment for assault with intent to commit rape in Florida. He was acquitted in another, unrelated rape case three years later.Patterson claims that the woman lied about being raped. (The woman in Florida, for which he pleaded guilty.) What's with the second charge? That doesn't look good.
It appears that Florida law treats a withheld judgment as not a conviction, so under 18 USC 921(a)(20), this is not a felony conviction for purposes of the federal ban on convicted felons being in possession. (Idaho law does apparently consider a withheld judgment to be the same as a conviction, which is why the application for a concealed carry permit asks about withheld judgment.) Even more complex: there is some speculation that Ada County Sheriff Raney pulled Patterson's carry permit because Raney was upset with a bill that Patterson sponsored:
Patterson authored House Bill 219 in the 2013 Legislature, which would have made it a misdemeanor for Idaho law enforcement officials to help enforce any new federal restrictions on semiautomatic firearms or ammunition or any new registration requirements. The measure was drafted to pre-empt any federal action in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting that killed 26 in December 2012.
Raney opposed the bill, which passed the House and died in the Senate without a hearing.
On May 10, after the Legislature adjourned, Patterson wrote formal complaints against Mike Kane, the lobbyist for the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association, and Vaughn Killeen, the group’s executive director. Raney is president of the association this year. Killeen was Ada County sheriff for 20 years and supported Raney, his undersheriff, to succeed him in 2004. Like Patterson, Raney and Killeen are Republicans.
Patterson said Kane and Killeen lobbied against HB 219 — the association was officially neutral — and failed to comply with the lobbying disclosure laws administered by Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.Idaho law exempts elected officials from the requirement for a concealed carry permit, so Patterson can apparently still carry concealed until he leaves office. I somehow can't picture the voters here re-electing someone who pled guilty to rape.
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