CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Tuesday, July 30, 2024 — The state is focusing the first day of its case today on sidebar matters to help suggest Ray Rzeplinski — the gun-collecting plumber — is dangerous, erratic and possibly a mental case.
It’s not building its case on the main issue, which is that Mr. Rzeplinski illegally purchased weapons knowing that he was a felon. Fifty-five weapons are disputed in the criminal case
The prosecutors’ focusing testimony on the day of Mr. Rzeplinski’s arrest has its perils. The record suggests that Mr. Rzeplinski, hands in the air, unarmed, thrown to the ground under a mob of gun-jabbing deputies, was unjustly abused. Defense attorney Ben McGowan holds up a notebook suggesting a thick medical record of injury from the arrest — four days in ICU, ribs broken.
The Tuesday witnesses create a scare factor to suggest that, because militarized SWAT was involved, Mr. Rzeplinski is violent. The evidence from deputies creates a dramatic scene of his arrest at the end of his driveway on 1515 Crabtree Road in Hixson, his hands in the air, not immediately dropping to his knees, and his stomach. He bore no weapon.
LEOs and prosecutors often misuse the “resisting” law at § 39-16-602. Obstruction of law enforcement; preventing service of process. It occurs when a person under arrest “ “intentionally prevent[s] or obstruct[s]” an officer or deputy “by using force,” such as striking, kicking, elbowing, kneeing the officer. Not complying instantly with deputy commands is not resisting. Not falling to one’s knees itself is not resisting. For all the testimony from two deputies about the arrest, none establish evidence of “resisting” — and no material with which a jury can perceive the essential element of scienter — guilty mind.
Peril of believing government
Nicole Evans, assistant district attorney, makes an opening statement.
Attorney McGowan highlights what matters in the case — the long sequence of government records vindicating Mr. Rzeplinski because it shows he knows he is not a felon as gun carrier, user and collector
Is a 1995 conviction for his role in a burglary in which crackers were stolen from a Bradley County a felony crime of violence, as Mrs. Evans says? Did Mr. Rzeplinski know that is his legal criminal history?
Mr. McGowan asks, “When the government screws up, who pays the price for that?” That a government record for two decades told the wrong story — should Mr. Rzeplinksi be punished for this goof?
He tells about Mr. Rzeplinski and “three other knuckleheads” going to Collins grocery in Bradley County on Oct. 2, 1995, in Mr. Rzeplinski’s car. One teen is a “paint huffer. One is passed out. “Not model kids.” Two go to Collins, break a window, go inside and steal snacks. “That’s the burglary you’ve heard about,” the felony that is the predicate crime underlying the felon-in-possession allegation, he says.
Not being masterminds, they are quickly arrested. Ray writes a confession. In a three-month period, three public defenders deal with him. A plea bargain is inked — evidently a sideways plea bargain, from a felony to a felony. Mr. McGowan says there was “confusion in Ray’s mind” that may still be there. He had a “lack of understanding of what was going on.”
Fast forward 24 years, the lawyer says. Mr. Rzeplinski has gotten life together. He runs a successful, bonded plumbing business.
He’s gone through “any number of background checks in connection with his work.” He worked in the jail. He’s licensed. He continued to collect guns (he grew up with guns in a farming context). In buying firearms, he gives his name, address, fills out federal paperwork, marks that he is “not convicted of a felony.”
They “want now to claim that is a lie,” Mr. McGowan says. Federal and state governments do background checks “to determine whether you should be [sold] a firearm.” He “engaged with this process, he was upfront, and he did what every citizen is supposed to go in terms of going through the correct process.”
The government approvals of his gun ownership rights go even further. Mr. Rzeplinski wants to carry a handgun concealed. Mr. Rzeplinski gets a firearm concealed carry permit from the Tennessee department of safety and homeland security. “He subjects himself to the sheriff's department, goes through a firearms training class, back in 2013, and they go through all the government procedures to see if he’s eligible,” and Mr. Rzeplinski gets repeatedly a clean bill of health.
He buys multiple firearms. From one or other retailer, store clerk filings with ATF get an occasional “conditional proceed.” Does he hide? Does Mr. Rzeplinski shift to attempting a private sale without record or permission? No “he reapplies and subjects himself to further scrutiny” at Academy Sports store, which gets a green light from government to conclude the sale.
The balance of Mr. McGowan’s opening focuses on the day of Mr. Rzeplinski’s arrest. He is forced to deal with it because the state insists on a sideshow to suggest Mr. Rzeplinski is violent and a threat requiring a paramilitary SWAT response.
‘Distraction’
The state’s case is a distraction, as Mr. McGowan calls it. The Coty Wamp / Nicole Evans prosecution focuses on things the state doesn't have to prove and doesn't focus on things that it must prove.
It must prove intentionality and knowingness, also known as mens rea, or guilty mind, evil intention. It has to prove on each gun charge that he knew he was a felon and intentionally bought firearms anyway despite myriad ATF and TBI approvals and green lights.
The state’s witnesses today are deputy Aaron Cameron, neighbor Steven Vaughn, 911 records keeper Jean Bartley and deputy Jacob Goforth. Their testimony is irrelevant to prosecution and the defense. They are not involved in proving “2A Ray’s” state of mind.
Neither side asks the witnesses about what evidence they are willing to testify to as to Mr. Rzeplinski’s state of mind regarding ownership of any one pistol, rifle or shotgun, or whether they know anything about the new-found record in the Bradley County criminal court archive dug up by HCSO and how Mr. Rzeplinski should have discovered it and immediately disowned his armory on learning he was a felon. The HSCO sent two officials to prowl through the Bradley records.
Of extraordinary note is the county’s deleting the soundfiles of the 911 calls the day of Mr. Rzeplinski’s arrest. The county destroyed them, even though it knew a criminal case was in process regarding those files, the 911 recordskeeper testimony indicates. The lawyers squabble over a document that is essentially a metadata record of calls made, with annotations by a dispatcher that are hearsay within hearsay, and useless to the work the jurors are being asked to perform.
Wamp ADA distracts jury with '2A Ray' arrest drama