Del. drops concealed weapon charge against engineer

Cris Barrish | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

WILMINGTON, Del. — Prosecutors dropped a felony charge of carrying a concealed firearm Monday against an engineer whose Tennessee firearm permit expired when he obtained a Delaware driver's license.

Jeremy Preston, 33, of Middletown, Del., who said he was enduring a "Second Amendment nightmare," told The News Journal about his June arrest.

"It's definitely a load off my back, that's for sure," Preston said after getting the news from his lawyer.

Preston said he soon would take the necessary steps to get the arrest expunged from his record in hopes of salvaging his career designing efficiency systems for nuclear plants.

Since his June 17 arrest, he has been prohibited from entering the Peach Bottom nuclear plant in York County, Pa., and has been working from his company's office in Wilmington.

Although the Delaware Attorney General's Office initially had instructed Middletown police to file a charge against Preston that could have put him behind bars for up to eight years, state prosecutor Mark Denney said a more thorough review of the facts persuaded authorities to drop the case.

A scheduled preliminary hearing in New Castle County Court of Common Pleas here will no longer be necessary, said Denney, who said his office will file the paperwork with the court.

Echoing state Prosecutor Kathleen M. Jennings, who had urged Preston to call her to try to resolve the case, Denney said his office did not want "a stupid mistake" to burden Preston with a felony conviction.

"This was not something that needed to be treated as a violent felony or someone who had a horrible criminal history," Denney said.

Denney said prosecutors will propose that Preston not try to retrieve the .40-caliber Glock pistol taken from him until he gets a Delaware concealed-carry permit.

Preston countered that he won't get such a permit because he won't ever "drive in Delaware again with a gun in my car."

Although a prison term was unlikely for Preston, who has no criminal record in Delaware and said he had never been arrested previously, he said the arrest has cost him money in legal fees and jeopardized his $100,000-plus-a-year job.

"It's devastating for me," Preston said in the article published Monday. "This is my career. I've spent a long time establishing a reputation as a hardworking engineer and now I get falsely arrested with these bogus charges, and it's pretty serious."

"Some of the damage has been done," Preston said, adding that his employers "are looking at me funny. They don't have time for this. They don't want the hassle. I can't work at a nuclear plant with a felony."

While police reports show that Preston's Tennessee permit to carry a concealed weapon expired when he obtained a Delaware driver's license in December, he contends he never knew that would happen. Tennessee officials never informed him his permit had been canceled.

Preston also said he thought he was protected by a reciprocity agreement between the two states that recognizes each other's concealed handgun carry permits.

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He said he even checked the Delaware Attorney General's Office website to review the state's policy on reciprocity and saw nothing that indicated his Tennessee permit would be invalid if he got a Delaware driver's license.

The Attorney General's Office website says someone with a permit in one of the 18 states with which Delaware has reciprocity agreements can carry a concealed weapon "while visiting or traveling through Delaware." However, it also says out-of-state permit holders "are responsible for knowing and obeying all of Delaware's laws and regulations."

Preston's lawyer, Joseph A. Hurley, said that while authorities had "probable cause to make an arrest," his client did not need to be prosecuted.

It's "roll first and deal with it later," Hurley said of the law enforcement approach in Delaware. "If somebody loses their job, that's too bad. That's the way the system works."

Preston said he got the concealed carry permit last year while living in Tennessee because he drives nice cars and fears getting carjacked or robbed.

When he was transferred to Peach Bottom in spring 2012, Preston returned to the Middletown home that he bought in 2006 but had been renting while he worked in other states.

At that point, he checked the attorney general's website and saw information about the reciprocity agreement.

Preston said he pays taxes in both Delaware and Tennessee but lists Tennessee as his home on his federal tax forms and considers it his permanent residence.

In December, he bought a new car and wanted to register it in Delaware rather than drive to Tennessee. After his insurer was told he needed a Delaware driver's license to register the car, he obtained one Dec. 13.

He did not run into problems in two previous traffic stops in New Castle County and Philadelphia. Both times Preston said he showed officers his gun and permit and was allowed to drive off with his weapon.

But when he was pulled over about 1:30 a.m. June 16 for speeding, Middletown police learned that his Tennessee concealed carry permit was attached to a person's driver's license. So by surrendering his Tennessee driver's license to get one in Delaware, he invalidated his Tennessee gun permit.

The officer kept the gun and said he had to check with the Attorney General's Office to see if criminal charges were warranted, Preston said.

Preston drove home, but the day after the traffic stop, the Attorney General's Office instructed police to get an arrest warrant for Preston on the felony charge.