Dayton-area man contests sheriff's refusal to issue permit

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that a New Carlisle man is challenging Miami Co. sheriff Charles A. Cox's denial of a concealed handgun license in the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals Tuesday. The DDN reports the challenge appears to be the first to reach an appeals court in the region since licenses first were issued in April 2004.

From the story:

William R. Harris, who has worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for 35 years, applied for a license last May following procedures outlined in the new law. Miami County Sheriff Charles Cox denied the application after a background check showed Harris was the subject of a five-year temporary or civil protection order issued in a Greene County court in December 2000.

A civil protection order is one of the legal reasons to deny a concealed weapon license. That order, however, was later dismissed in favor of consent decree that did not specifically prohibit him from possessing a weapon.

Harris told Miami County Judge Jeffrey Welbaum last summer he would not have applied for a license if there was a prohibition.

Welbaum, in a decision that led to Tuesday's appeal hearing, ruled that Harris remains subject to the Greene County civil protection order.

Harris' lawyer, Jeff Slyman, told the appeals court that Harris is a retired Army major with no criminal record and has a top security clearance.

Slyman argued the sheriff could have looked at the consent decree and would have seen there was no firearm prohibition. He said Harris believes "from a constitutional, a fairness ... standpoint that that particular agreement he entered into is not a protection order and shouldn't permit him from carrying."

James Dicks Jr., an assistant county prosecutor, said the sheriff has no discretion and is not required to review a court order's content. "He checks if the order exists," he said.

So let's get this straight - when it comes to a retired United States Army Major with top secret clearance, it's letter-of-the-law time in Miami County. But when Miami Co. Prosecutor Gary Nasal is appointed special prosecutor to investigate a sheriff for committing a felony by releasing CHL-holders' private, protected information, and when clear evidence of the violation exists in the form of a newspaper article in the Sidney Daily News, the "investigation" is delayed for months before grand jury is used to sweep the entire affair under the rug. Sound fair?