Man charged in McDonald’s assault still has valid handgun license

Clark County

Discussion

January 30, 2010

Arrest was never submitted to state criminal database

By MATT THACKER The News and Tribune Sat Jan 30, 2010, 03:38 PM EST

A 78-year-old Jeffersonville man accused of carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol into a Jeffersonville McDonald’s restaurant and then assaulting another customer still has a valid permit to carry a handgun.

Richard Edward Hughes was charged in September with class C felony battery with a deadly weapon and class D felony criminal recklessness.

Lt. Jerry Berkey, of the Indiana State Police’s Records Division, said arrests and convictions are reported to the state’s criminal history repository. Those entries are checked against the handgun license database and show up on a report which is reviewed by a licensing clerk to determine if the license should be revoked.

Berkey said he could find no record that Hughes’ arrest was reported to the repository, and the Jeffersonville Police Department had not requested that his gun permit be revoked.

Clark County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull ran a report from the National Crime Information Center and discovered that they also had no record of the arrest. NCIC is a computerized index, run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that allows law enforcement agencies across the country to access information about people who have been arrested.

After reviewing the process, local authorities are still not sure why Hughes’ arrest was never entered into the state’s database.

“We’ve got a machine that’s supposed to be taking fingerprints and sending the information to the state, but the thing doesn’t work all the time,” Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden said.

When they find out the machine is not working, they will take a card and manually submit the information. Rodden said he is not sure why Hughes was never entered into the database. He said the person who booked Hughes into jail did not remember having any problems with that case.

“You can’t really pin anything down,” Rodden said.

The alleged victim in the case, 39-year-old Patrick Becka, of New Albany, said he was surprised when he learned Hughes still has a valid permit.

“I think anybody who’s going to pull out a gun over a perceived slight at McDonald’s doesn’t sound like someone who should be allowed to have a gun,” Becka said.

According to a police report, Hughes thought Becka cut in front of him in line at the McDonald’s on Court Avenue and Broadway. The two got into a verbal argument, and Hughes allegedly went to his vehicle and returned with a gun. The two reportedly became involved in a physical altercation once Hughes pointed a gun at Becka’s head.

Hughes’ attorney, Perry McCall, said his client’s gun permit should not be revoked because he has not been convicted of a crime.

“He’s presumed under the Constitution to be innocent until proven guilty. To jump the conclusion that Mr. Hughes has done anything wrong just because you have a disgruntled customer, I don’t see how you can do that,” McCall said.

McCall said Hughes has had a gun permit for years and previously worked in law enforcement as a jail officer. While he has not spoken to Hughes about the gun permit, he said Hughes would probably fight having his gun permit revoked.

After being contacted by The Evening News, Berkey contacted JPD and requested a copy of paperwork. He said his clerk was in the process of reviewing whether more paperwork would be needed to seek a revocation.

ISP has previously revoked gun permits based solely on criminal charges, as in the case of Yalanda Parrish who was later convicted in Clark County of aggravated battery for shooting a motorcyclist during a road-rage incident. If ISP pursues the revocation, Hughes could be required to attend a hearing in Indianapolis if he wants to keep his permit.

Rodden said he recently signed paperwork for the state to upgrade their computer system. He hopes the new system will be more reliable, although he is not sure when the upgrade will take place. He said the state is looking to upgrade the computer systems in all the county jails in the state.

A jury trial for Hughes is scheduled for March 2.