Unfuckinbelieveable





I met Mark Whitaschek in 2014 after D.C. raided his Georgetown house — without a warrant —looking for unregistered guns. After handcuffing him, pulling his son out of the shower, blasting through safes, ripping through doors, they found one inert shotgun shell and muzzleloader bullets.

He went to jail. The city prosecuted him for "possession of unregistered ammunition." At the trial, the judge said she didn't know what was a shotgun shell, but she convicted him anyway.

MILLER: D.C. businessman faces two years in jail for unregistered ammunition, brass casing
October 23, 2013

Mark Witaschek, a successful financial adviser with no criminal record, is facing two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition after D.C. police raided his house looking for guns. Mr. Witaschek has never had a firearm in the city, but he is being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The trial starts on Nov. 4.

The police banged on the front door of Mr. Witaschek's Georgetown home at 8:20 p.m. on July 7, 2012, to execute a search warrant for "firearms and ammunition ... gun cleaning equipment, holsters, bullet holders and ammunition receipts."

Mr. Witaschek's 14-year-old daughter let inside some 30 armed officers in full tactical gear.

D.C. law requires residents to register every firearm with the police, and only registered gun owners can possess ammunition, which includes spent shells and casings. The maximum penalty for violating these laws is a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

After entering the house, the police immediately went upstairs, pointed guns at the heads of Mr. Witaschek and his girlfriend, Bonnie Harris, and demanded they surrender, facedown and be handcuffed.

In recalling what followed, Mr. Witaschek became visibly emotional in describing how the police treated him, Ms. Harris and the four children in the house.

His 16-year-old son was in the shower when the police arrived. "They used a battering ram to bash down the bathroom door and pull him out of the shower, naked," said his father. "The police put all the children together in a room, while we were handcuffed upstairs. I could hear them crying, not knowing what was happening."


MILLER: D.C. man on trial for one shotgun shell-
Mark Witaschek is the first known prosecution for inoperable, unregistered ammunition

Continues...

https://www.emilypostnews.com/p/mark-witaschek-prosecuted-for-shotguns