Fearing Her Husband, She Took His Guns To Police. They Arrested Her.
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Source: Huffington Post
06/21/2019 03:12 pm ET
Joseph Irby allegedly rammed his wife’s car off the road. She ended up behind bars.
By Melissa Jeltsen
An alleged victim of domestic violence in Florida was arrested and charged with armed burglary after she removed her estranged husband’s guns from his residence and brought them to a police department for safekeeping.
The case exemplifies the practical challenges of disarming domestic abusers, especially in a state like Florida where almost one-third of the population owns firearms.
On June 14, Courtney Irby was in court with her husband for a divorce hearing. According to an arrest affidavit, Joseph Irby followed his wife as she left the courthouse and began ramming his car into the back of her vehicle, ultimately driving her off the road. She called police “uncontrollably crying and advised that she was in fear for her life,” the affidavit reads. She also disclosed that she’d had a number of protective orders against her husband in the past.
Police arrested Joseph Irby and charged him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Courtney Irby applied for a temporary injunction for protection.
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-irby-domestic-violence-guns_n_5d0d1163e4b0a394186200f8
Courtney Irby
Joseph Irby
= new reply since forum marked as read
Not the least of which was that she went to his place and entered without his permission. "Stand your ground" presupposes that in some sense it's *your* ground. Just don't break and enter and there's no problem--otherwise every armed invasion robbery would qualify.
The black woman you're speaking of fits that description. She went to his place. They argued. The kids were there. She felt threatened, and *left the house* (going to the garage). There she got a firearm, *returned* to the interior of his house, and fired a shot. Now, even then the round wasn't aimed at him but a "warning shot" The shot could have hit the kids. The details matter. The details *always* matter, if only because they can dispel any "but what if" counter-assertions. However, they also keep people from taking the feel-good-but-wrong side. Alexander's husband was no gem, but victim status doesn't confer sovereign immunity on all further or past actions by the victim. The problem is that the half-truth forms a nice narrative, one that we empathize with (synonymous with "biased towards"
. Half a truth is worse than a lie.
The article, and the court hearing the abused woman heard, told her what to do. He was barred from possessing firearms under court order. She should have contacted the police, sworn out an affidavit alleging he was in possession of firearms, and asked the police to enforce the court order. They'd have knocked on his door (before or after getting a warrant--I'm guessing "after" and he would have been found in default of the court order. His pretrial release would have been suspended, he'd be in jail, the police would be in possession of his weapons. Instead, *she* decided she was the law-enforcement officer and officer of the court and took the law, so to speak, into her own hands. Sometimes with "due process" you also need to just "do process."
...It might not be what most people here agree with or want to hear but everything you posted is 100% correct... 
Do you really think you have the right to break into your husband's apartment when you're separated?
Does that go both ways? If a husband enters his estranged wife's apartment and takes "her" things, is that okay with you, too? After all, they're still married, right?
Or does this only go one way?
what were their next steps? Did they hand the guns back to him or did they keep the guns? Next thing we will hear is a story about how it was perfectly legal to wait outside the police station with a loaded weapon waiting for your estranged wife to get out of jail.
Now I see it at the very end. What a bunch of idiots!
Last edited Sat Jun 22, 2019, 02:23 AM - Edit history (2)
A judge had banned her husband from.possessing firearms-- she was carrying out the court's wishes!
From the article:
According to court documents, she told the police officer on duty that her husband had been arrested the day before, and that she wanted to hand in his guns because she didn’t believe he would turn them in.
The police officer asked if she had taken her husband’s firearms without his permission. When she replied yes, he told her that she was confessing to a crime. Police arrested her and she was charged with armed burglary of a dwelling and grand theft of a firearm.
By Kathy Leigh Berkowitz, The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
Posted Jun 21, 2019 at 4:43 PM
Link: https://www.theledger.com/news/20190621/state-lawmaker-outraged-over-lakeland-womans-arrest
Eskamani issued a statement Friday saying, “The case of Courtney Taylor Irby demonstrates once more the dangerous linkage between intimate partner violence and access to firearms. Court records show that Irby applied for a temporary injunction against her husband and the two were in the process of a divorce. She was actively protecting herself and her family from an estranged husband who had not turned over his firearms to law enforcement, and was arrested for it. We should be outraged by her arrest, and Irby should not be prosecuted by the local State Attorney’s office.”
Eskamani also noted that in 2018, Florida lawmakers passed a risk protection order law. “In Florida, only a law enforcement officer or agency can file a petition for a risk protection order, which should have happened in this case,” she said. “Federal gun laws already protect women from domestic abusers by prohibiting gun possession for people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence or subject to a final domestic violence restraining order. But dangerous gaps and weaknesses in the system remain at the state level.”
State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, and Eskamani filed SB1206/HB941 to close the gaps, according to Eskamani in a statement to The Ledger. “Our bill requires a person convicted of a misdemeanor offense of domestic violence to surrender (when convicted) all firearms and ammunition in his or her possession to law enforcement. Our bill never got a hearing, but we plan to refile it in 2020.”
According to Polk County Jail records, Joseph Irby was released on $10,000 bail the day after his arrest on June 14.
Taken into custody June 15, Courtney Taylor Irby was released from the county jail on $7,000 bond Thursday.
I hope this woman has a safe place to stay. Protective orders do not stop bullets.....
Perhaps this guy should be wearing a government-issue Rolex until the trial is over. Makes no sense he's even out on bail considering he's had numerous protective orders against him in the past, and just committed a dangerous act against the woman......
From https://heavy.com/news/2019/06/courtney-irby/
[div chttps://heavy.com/news/2019/06/courtney-irby/lass="excerpt"]
[...]
Her attorney, Lawrence Shearer, said in a court motion that the action did not constitute theft because Joseph would have been able to retrieve his guns from the police, LkldNow reported. He added that Courtney turned the guns over and had no intention to “appropriate the property to her own use or the use of any person not entitled to the use of the property.”
Shearer also cited Courtney’s lack of criminal history and her “great many ties to the community, to be demonstrated at a hearing on this motion.” Shearer said in the filing that the officer calling Joseph Irby her “ex-husband,” was inaccurate because they are still married.
You can see the court filing below:
[...]
More at link.
Her lawyer will try to come up with anything as a defense. The fact that he's flying in the face of black letter law should tell you something.
If I steal pot from my neighbor to turn in to the police, it's still theft and breaking and entering.
There's no exception to the state statute that says, "it's okay if you turn it in to the police."
"Marital property" works both ways. Would you be okay with him breaking into her apartment, her having moved out?
Do tell.
I'm going to avoid going to Lakeland...meanwhile, with guns in schools and virtually no restrictions on purchases there will continue to be shootings in Florida.
