Jim Walsh

@jimwalsh_cp

A Philadelphia woman who faced mandatory jail time for bringing a legally registered gun into New Jersey won a reprieve Wednesday.

Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said he will not oppose a diversion program for Shaneen Allen, reversing a stance that had prompted widespread criticism.

McClain cited a clarification issued by Acting Attorney General John Hoffman, who said imprisonment "is neither necessary nor appropriate" for some legal gun owners who run afoul of New Jersey's strict laws on firearms.

He said jail time should be considered only in cases with "case-specific aggravating circumstances."

The 10-page clarification addressed "otherwise law-abiding persons" who bring into New Jersey a gun "that had been acquired lawfully and could be carried lawfully by that visitor in the visitor's home jurisdiction."

It also said those defendants must be under the "misimpression" that their gun possession is lawful in this state.

Allen, a 27-year-old mother of two, was arrested after a traffic stop on the Atlantic City Expressway in Hamilton Township last October.

During the traffic stop, Allen told a state trooper she had a legally owned gun in her vehicle. She also had a concealed carry permit from Pennsylvania, but that had no legal weight in New Jersey.

New Jersey requires that guns be carried unloaded and in a closed and fastened case, gun box or securely tied package or locked in the trunk. The state also restricts how and where weapons can be transported, and it doesn't recognize carry permits issued by other states.

SEE ALSO: COMMENTARY: Keep out-of-state guns out of N.J.

Allen was arrested on weapons charges that could send her to prison for three years.

She initially was accepted into a pretrial program for nonviolent offenders that could have led to lesser penalties or having the charge expunged, but the Atlantic County Prosecutor's office opposed that.

McClain said that, after reviewing the clarification, he determined Allen should be "offered the opportunity to be admitted into the Atlantic County (pretrial intervention) program."

The prosecutor said he will review similar pending cases "and make appropriate decisions."

SEE ALSO: RABBLE ROUSER: Gun control arguments misleading

Allen's attorney, Evan Nappen of Eatontown, Monmouth County, welcomed the news in a Facebook post: "This will help hundreds of law-abiding gun owners! No jail and no conviction for Shaneen Allen!"

Hoffman said the clarification does not apply to out-of-staters believed to have a gun for unlawful use. He also said prosecutors could challenge a claim "that the gun possession offense was inadvertent."

Hoffman sent his clarification of the 2008 Graves Act to all 21 county prosecutors in New Jersey.

He said a survey conducted as part of the clarification process found arrests like Allen's were not common, but that "nearly every county prosecutor has handled at least a few such cases in recent years, and some offices routinely handle several such cases per year."

Allen's case attracted nationwide attention, with supporters giving almost $65,000 to an online defense fund that initially sought just $25,000.

The controversy was the second to focus attention on PTI practices at the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

The agency has also been criticized for a decision favorable to NFL star Ray Rice, who was approved for PTI after being charged earlier this year with assaulting his then-fiancee at the former Revel casino-hotel in Atlantic City.

Reach Jim Walsh at jwalsh@courierpostonline.com or (856) 486-2646. Tweet him @jimwalsh_cp.