I wonder how many people have ever gone through his court on just a concealed weapons charge.
They make really good holsters for pocket carry, so that a gun won't merely just fall out of a pocket. I can literally hold mine upside down and shake it, and the gun won't fall out, but it will easily come out when I pull it out. Not that I'd be carrying something that I wasn't allowed to carry anyway but still.
A veteran Cook County judge was hit with a misdemeanor gun charge after sheriff’s deputies saw him drop a pistol last week in the lobby of the county’s main criminal courthouse, authorities said.
Judge Joseph Claps, who has presided over felony criminal cases at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, was reassigned last week to “nonjudicial duties” pending a meeting Wednesday of the circuit court’s executive committee, a spokesman for Chief Judge Timothy Evans’ office said.
Claps was walking in the lobby of the courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue on July 3 when two deputies noticed a handgun fall out of a jacket draped over the judge’s arm, according to a sheriff’s incident report.
Security cameras captured the gun tumbling out of Claps’ jacket as well as the judge picking up the silver pistol and putting it in his pants pocket, the report said.
Claps has a firearm owner’s identification card and a concealed carry license, Smith said, but weapons are prohibited in the courthouse for even concealed carry holders.
Claps, 70, has been a judge for more than two decades, the last 15 years with the Criminal Division. He previously worked as the top assistant to the state attorney general and as a Cook County prosecutor.
