Associated Press
CLEVELAND – Seattle Mariners reliever Jose Mesa will have to stand trial on a concealed weapon charge, a judge ruled today.
The refusal by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Curran to dismiss the charge means a trial will start Nov. 13. If convicted, Mesa, a former Cleveland Indian, could be sentenced to as much as 1 1/2years in prison and be deported to the Dominican Republic.
Police in 1996 stopped Mesa’s car and found a gun in an unlocked compartment. Mesa was stopped because he was wanted on sex abuse charges based on allegations from two women.
A jury later acquitted Mesa of rape, gross sexual imposition and theft charges. Curran dismissed a charge of carrying a concealed weapon, ruling that police didn’t have a right to search Mesa’s car.
But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled last year that police could search the unlocked compartment.
Mesa’s attorney, Gerald Messerman, had asked Curran on Wednesday to rule the state’s concealed-weapon law unconstitutional, saying it should have provisions allowing some people, like Mesa, to carry a weapon for defensive purposes and not be prosecuted for it.
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