Gabriel Metcalf sits in federal lockup, awaiting trial, without any criminal convictions, history of violence, threatening anyone, or pointing a gun at anyone. He is in jail for exercising his First and Second Amendment rights.
In the Gun Free School Zone case in Billings, Montana, in the affidavit of criminal complaint for the arrest of Gabriel Metcalf, the ATF Task Force officer and Billings Police officer, Dustin Stroble, wrote this:
Per dispatch narrative, METCALF lives at 430 Broadwater and patrols his yard due to a protection order he believes is in place and is trying to protect his mother.
Dustin Stroble may be casting doubt about the existence of a restraining order/protection order in this case. The "he believes" language implies other people, such as the police, believe differently. As shown in a previous article, there is documentary evidence of an order of protection which was granted on August 31, 2022. The Order of Protection is valid until August 29, 2032. Gabriel Metcalf's mother, Vivian, has confirmed there were numerous contacts with Billings Police Department since that time, complaining about multiple violations of the restraining order/order of protection in the past year. Moreover, Vivian states David Lee Carpenter was arrested for violations of the restraining order on 31 July, 2023, and released on bond within a day.
This correspondent has received documentary evidence of the conviction of David Lee Carpenter, on November, 2022, of five criminal misdemeanors involving two separate individuals, including an assault on Gabriel Metcalf.
The four other convictions include two for violations of the order of protection and two for Privacy of Communications, Montana Code Annotated 45-8-213 (1) (a). The privacy of communications violations involved a victim identified as CU. The privacy of communications code involves threats:
(a) with the purpose to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or injure, communicates with a person by electronic communication and threatens to inflict injury or physical harm to the person or property of the person or makes repeated use of obscene, lewd, or profane language or repeated lewd or lascivious suggestions;
Complaints about David Lee Carpenter's threats and active attacks started about a year before the issuance of the Order of Protection in August of 2022. He was arrested and convicted of five misdemeanors by November of 2022. He was ordered to wear a GPS tracking ankle monitor. Afterwards, another warrant for his arrest was issued and he was arrested on that warrant on July 31, 2023, and released on bail, without a GPS tracker.
The Billings Police Department has about 162 sworn officers. The Order of Protection case involving David Lee Carpenter has been ongoing for over two years, with two separate arrests and five misdemeanor criminal convictions. The Billings Police Department headquarters is about a mile from the 430 Broadwater address of Gabriel Metcalf and his mother, Vivian.
On the basis of the affidavit and criminal complaint, federal Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan granted a pre-trial order of detention for Gabriel Metcalf. This means Gabriel will be held in jail without the possibility of bail, until the trial, which could be years.
The evidence of an active, ongoing Order of Protection, the five convictions of David Lee Carpenter, and the complaints of numerous credible threats, were not presented to Judge Cavan. They may aid in a defense plea to allow bail for Gabriel Metcalf.
Vivian, Gabriel's mother, is deprived of the help of her son while he sits in jail, with no bail in sight. She is poor as a church mouse, in part because of two years of a terror campaign by David Carpenter with several unidentified confederates, in part because of two months of covid/pnemonia where neither she nor Gabriel could work. She has set up a GiveSendGo account to aid in Gabriel's defense and to keep the utilities on in her modest home. At 71, Vivian continues to work part time and to take in alterations at her small alterations shop. Her home and pets remain at risk.
This case is a rare opportunity to challenge the Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA), passed in 1990, and ruled to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1994. The addition of 11 words to the Act in 1996 has been enough to have 5 of 8 circuits who have ruled on it since 1996 claim the 11 words cured the constitutional defect. The Ninth Circuit, which includes Montana, is one of those five circuits. Three other circuits have maintained the GFSZA continues to be unconstitutional. The opportunity of a clear challenge may be lost if Gabriel becomes desperate enough to succumb to a plea deal, in order to get out of jail and help his mother.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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