For Immediate Release September 4, 1996

Presidents, Politics, and Prosecutors Shouldn't Mix

by Shawn Mitchell

Bill Clinton wants to preserve the gender gap so badly he's willing to throw Luis Rivera in jail.

Mr. Rivera, of El Paso County, faces federal felony charges for allegedly violating a law that bans suspected domestic abusers from having guns. But the law is misapplied here. A Colorado court specifically found that Mr. Rivera never abused his spouse, never threatened her, and posed no threat to do so.

That the U.S. Attorney's Office, under Clinton-appointee Henry Solano, is prosecuting Mr. Rivera for buying a .22 rifle speaks volumes about the justice system and Bill Clinton's political strategy of stitching together special interest coalitions with political favors, or if necessary, strong arm legal tactics.

Some background: the breakdown of Luis and Kathleen Rivera's marriage was as acrimonious as most. There were arguments and nasty phone calls and in 1995, Ms. Rivera applied for a restraining order from the Arapahoe County Courts to keep Luis from contacting her. But her affidavit supporting her request for a permanent order shows he never threatened her and she never feared for her safety.

She alleged that Mr. Rivera gave up on reconciliation because he believed she wouldn't "make the necessary changes," and that on one call he yelled "shut up" several times and then he "said 'talk to me' three times." Also, that "he twists facts or makes up conclusions," and "it doesn't matter what I say or feel." Not the most dangerous-sounding circumstance, but restraining orders are liberally granted in domestic situations.

The form for issuing such orders, however, refers to the restrained person committing or threatening to commit violent acts, and finds that the complainant is in danger of future abuse. The judicial magistrate scratched those sections out of the form before signing the order. For his part, Mr. Rivera did not oppose the order, which he understood as simply barring him from communicating with his soon to be ex-wife.

Mr. Rivera's troubles began after two events. First, in May of this year, he purchased a .22 caliber rifle at a Littleton sporting goods store. The Federal Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits felons from possessing guns. In 1994 the Act was amended to also cover individuals subject to restraining orders against "harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner." The law expressly applies only to court orders that find a "credible threat" of violence, or which by their terms prohibit the use or threat of physical force. To buy the gun, Mr. Rivera completed a form attesting, among other things, that he was not subject to such an order.

The intent and arguably the letter of the law did not apply to Mr. Rivera's case. But when the Arapahoe magistrate deleted the language about violence, she neglected to change the standard form language directing Mr. Rivera not to "injure, threaten, molest, disturb, interfere with or annoy" Ms. Rivera. Though Mr. Rivera technically was under order not to "threaten" his wife, that was never an issue.

The second problem for Mr. Rivera was Bill Clinton's re-election strategy to seek the women's vote by hammering on demographically targeted issues. Mr. Clinton boasted at a recent Denver campaign rally of his efforts to prosecute dead-beat dads and to keep guns away from domestic abusers.

One difficulty for the President: few if any dead-beat dad or abuser-gun cases have been filed in the federal courts in Colorado. It would have been illuminating to hear what Attorney General Janet Reno, or Jamie Gorelick, Clinton's point-person at the Justice Department, said to Henry Solano about that. In any event, last month, felony charges and an arrest warrant were issued for Mr. Rivera.

The smell of injustice is strong here. When criminal defendants plea-bargain to felony charges, they are advised about loss of their rights to vote, to possess guns, and other consequences. Mr. Rivera wasn't. Had he been advised he was forfeiting his gun rights, he might have contested the order or sought a modification to clarify that the federal ban did not apply.

The smell of politics is even stronger. The Clinton administration has a pattern of wooing supporters and interest groups with favors and using law enforcement to promote its political agenda: the FBI and the Travel Office firings; discrimination lawsuits by HUD against critics of its low income housing projects; and now charges against domestic non-abuser Luis Rivera, of Kiowa, Colorado.

Even the small fish better keep out of Bill Clinton's way.

Shawn Mitchell is a Senior Fellow with the Independence Institute, a think-tank in Golden, Colorado.

This article, from the Independence Institute staff, fellows and research network, is offered for your use at no charge. Independence Feature Syndicate articles are published for educational purposes only, and the authors speak for themselves. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily representing the views of the Independence Institute or as an attempt to influence any election or legislative action.
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