Justices reject Spierer-obsessed man’s appeal of gun confiscation

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The Indiana Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from a man whose 51 guns and ammunition were seized after authorities became alarmed by his behavior near the site where missing Indiana University student Lauren Spierer was last seen.

Justices denied transfer in Robert E. Redington v. State of Indiana, 53A01-1210-CR-461, letting stand a trial court order seizing weapons that was affirmed by a divided panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals.

The COA opinion noted in detail Redington’s behaviors that concerned authorities. He drove frequently from his home in Indianapolis to Bloomington, where police found him in a parking garage across the street from Kilroy’s Sports Bar looking through a range-finder at the place Spierer was last seen. He then chatted with police about their propensity with firearms from such distances. He later said he saw spirits and that he was investigating Spierer’s disappearance, among other things.

Redington was never charged, but police detained him and he was held for observation by mental health professionals. Monroe Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Diekhoff issued an order to search Redington’s home and confiscate weapons after she determined he was “dangerous” under I.C. § 35-47-14-1(a)(2)(B).

The COA majority of Elaine Brown and Cale Bradford found that “Redington continuing to own firearms threatens to inflict ‘particularized harm’ analogous to tortious injury on readily identifiable private interests.”

Dissenting Judge Patricia Riley noted that a psychologist testified that Redington had been released when it was determined he didn’t pose an imminent danger, therefore the “dangerous” test under the statute failed. “The State provided no further probative evidence establishing otherwise,” Riley wrote.
 

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