By Patty LaTaille
DA Denied Weapons Permit
12th Judicial District Attorney David Mahonee was denied a concealed weapons permit based on a FBI fingerprint match between Mahonee and a David Huey that reflected an arrest record from a crime committed in Minnesota, 1971 in prohibiting the possession of firearms.
Huey (now known as David Mahonee) was charged with auto theft, a felony that was eventually reduced to misdemeanor unauthorized use of a vehicle. Mahonee, who legally changed his name from Huey in 1983, successfully requested that the 1971 record of his conviction be expunged last year.
According to The Valley Courier, the concealed weapons permit should not have been denied, Mahonee said. With only a misdemeanor conviction in his background, Mahonee is allowed to possess firearms, and in fact, says he owns several guns including a shotgun, rifle and pistol.
When Mahonee learned that requests had been made to Alamosa County Sheriff Dave Stong for his concealed weapons permit denial, he told the sheriff he believed this was a confidential matter and Stong should not release it. Stong told him he had already released it.
Mahonee said he “did not want to point fingers,” but believed Stong probably should have checked into the matter further at the time of the denial in October 2010, if for no other reason than to pursue the fact that the DA could be a convicted felon.
Tasty Taters Champion
Senator Mark Udall (D), who passed a bill in October 2011 to keep potatoes on the school menu for millions of children across the county, visited Aspen Produce in Center as a part of a “tuber tour” that included stops in Fort Garland, Alamosa and Saguache. He met with local producers and potato enthusiasts and received a framed school lunch tray to honor his dedication to the potato cause.
Last year there was a proposed limit to the amount of potatoes and other starchy vegetables that schools could serve during lunch – to one cup per week – and completely banning them from breakfast. Partnering with Maine Senator Susan Collins (R), Udall helped block the proposal through an amendment to the 2012 Ag Department spending bill. This unanimously approved amendment prohibits the department from limiting vegetable servings in a school meal program – based on findings showing the proposal had no basis in nutritional value.
“If you eat, you are involved with agriculture,” Udall remarked, and credited former state senator Lewis Entz for the wise statement.
Not Quite Public Indecency
James Howard Brown, 32, Alamosa, was charged with indecent exposure on Oct. 23 in the Safeway parking lot after being positively identified as the man seen allegedly stimulating himself in a backyard at the 700 block of Craft Drive.
Alamosa Police were alerted when a witness allegedly saw Brown exposing and touching his genitalia, but he had already fled the scene. A few hours later, the witness again saw Brown in the grocery store parking lot and contacted the authorities.
In 2010, Colorado law separated the crime of public indecency from the crime of indecent exposure. Prior to this, the more serious act of public stimulation was charged as an act of public indecency, a Class 1 petty offense (the same as urinating in public).
