Eric D. Lawrence

Detroit Free Press

A Michigan Appeals Court judge was allowed to enter a guilty plea in an airport gun case outside of open court today.

Judge Henry William Saad's plea happened around the time members of the media who were in a courtroom awaiting his arraignment were told by a court officer that the proceeding would not be happening.

Instead, Judge Tina Brooks Green, chief judge of 34th District Court in Romulus, allowed Saad, who is charged with having a loaded handgun in his carry-on bag at Detroit Metro Airport last month, to waive his arraignment and enter his plea in private. Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the details of the plea deal were hashed out in the court's chambers and signed in another, unoccupied courtroom. Green, however, denies that, claiming the deal was executed elsewhere in the building.

"It's not the crime of the century, and it's standard practice," Green told the Free Press. Asked if Saad received special consideration because he is a judge, Green said, "absolutely not."

Green said the technical term for how Saad's case was handled is a "plea by mail," something she said is often done in cases involving the airport, which is in the 34th District Court's jurisdiction. Specific numbers of similar cases were not available today, although Green said she dealt with two others today.

Michael Conway, a spokesman for the Wayne County Airport Authority, said pleas in gun cases at the airport are not unusual, noting that 27 people were discovered with guns last year at airport screening checkpoints. A plea by mail is often used for defendants who do not live in the Detroit area. However, Conway said that it's up to the judge to decide how to handle specific cases, and the prosecutor's office noted that Saad was actually in the building when he was permitted to "plea by mail."

Greg Hurley, a spokesman for the Williamsburg, Va.-based National Center for State Courts, described the process as equivalent to a plea in absentia but said there is scant information about how common it is nationwide.

"We know there's a lot of variance around the country regarding pleas in absentia in misdemeanor cases," he said.

Saad pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm in a sterile area, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail. He was ordered to pay a $750 fine and given a deferred sentencing for 90 days. Meaning if he does not commit any criminal acts during that time the sentence will be dismissed.

Miller noted that the prosecutor's office "voiced our disagreement with not putting the plea on the record in open court," but the case proceeded regardless.

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Saad of Bloomfield Hills had his gun confiscated and he was released from custody after the Feb. 21 incident.

“Airport security breaches — even unintentional ones — are taken very seriously,” Worthy said in a previous news release. ‎"We have consulted with officials at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and are charging Judge Saad with a misdemeanor offense consistent with others that have allegedly committed a similar offense.”

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Saad is a former partner at the Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen and Freeman law firm with a court term expiring in 2021. He was scheduled to fly to Ft. Myers, Fla., when Transportation Security Administration personnel spotted a weapon while scanning his bag about 8:30 a.m. at the North Terminal, according to Conway.

A previous call to Saad's office was referred to State Court Administrative Office spokesman John Nevin, who said today that there is no change in Saad's status with the court and he declined to comment on the case.

A message seeking comment was left for Saad's attorney, John Dakmak of Detroit.

Other public officials have been busted with handguns in Metro Airport and their cases have ended similarly, though they have stood publicly before a judge.

Anthony Adams, a former Detroit deputy mayor in the Kwame Kilpatrick administration, was spared a jail sentence in December 2012 after he admitted having a loaded handgun in his briefcase before boarding an October flight at Metro Airport.

Judge David Parrott told Adams that he would consider dismissing the case if Adams stayed out of trouble for a year. Adams was ordered to pay $475 in fees. He could have faced up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine on the misdemeanor charge of possessing a weapon in a sterile area of the airport.

And in October of 2003, former Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver was stopped trying to board a plane to Philadelphia with a loaded handgun in his luggage. That November he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of possessing an unlicensed handgun. He was fined $250 by Judge Brian Oakley and the charge would be dismissed in 90 days if Oliver stayed out of trouble.

Oliver also received a $300 fine from the federal Transportation Security Administration for failing to declare that the gun was in his checked baggage.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence. Staff writer Tresa Baldas contributed to this report.