Custodial dad gets 5 years probation for illegal gun that 13-year-old son used to commit suicide (Carmel, New York)

Another case where it's important to read between the lines.

Though it is not spelled out very clearly, it appears that dad DOUGLAS GRAHAM was custodial. And from what we see here, there is no good reason why. Something is a little screwy about a guy who harbors illegal, unregistered guns, then hides them (evidence tampering) after the son dies in what is purported to be a gun-related suicide. (I guess we'll have to take the word of the authorities on that?) Notice that the mother was concerned about Daddy's guns, but as too often happens, the mother's concerns were ignored. If this was in fact a suicide, I can't help but wonder if the boy was depressed living with his gun-freak father.

Notice how everybody sucks up to Daddy, claiming he has "suffered enough." All except the mother's family. Funny how that happens....

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/22/teen-illegal-weapon-suicide-father-sentenced/4785169/

Dad gets 5 years probation for gun son used in suicide

Terence Corcoran, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News
8:19 p.m. EST January 22, 2014

Father admitted he illegally possessed the gun his son, 13, used to kill himself last year. Story

Highlights
Police charged Douglas Graham with criminal possession of a weapon and evidence tampering Graham pleaded guilty to single felony count of weapon possession
Michael Graham's friends and their parents asked judge for leniency

CARMEL, N.Y. — A New York father who admitted to illegally possessing the handgun his teenage son used to kill himself last year was sentenced Wednesday to five years probation after several of the boy's friends and their parents asked the judge for leniency.

Michael Graham was 13 when he shot himself Jan. 14, 2013, in a bedroom inside his father's home in Southeast, N.Y., with a gun hidden in the attic. The killing perplexed those who knew the handsome, athletic and popular eighth-grader at Henry H. Wells Middle School in Brewster, N.Y.

STORY: Boy used illegal gun in suicide; father charged
STORY: Police: Father hid 2 illegal guns after son's suicide

Three months later, New York state police charged Douglas Graham, 55, with three counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of evidence tampering, felonies, after investigators found three unregistered pistols in the home and alleged he hid two of them after the shooting.

"Have we all not suffered enough?" wrote one of Michael's friends in a letter that Judge James Rooney read at Wednesday's sentencing. "Taking (his father) away from us will not bring Mike back." Another friend called Douglas Graham "a father figure to the whole Brewster community."

Adding to the tragedy, Michael's mother, Sheila Kearney Graham, 52, was found dead in her California home in October. Family members say she took her own life nine months to the day after Michael did because she was so devastated over the death of her only child. Michael's parents were divorced.

Graham's attorney, James Borkowski, reached an agreement with prosecutors for Graham to plead guilty to a single felony count of weapon possession in exchange for probation. But Rooney said he first wanted to know where the guns came from and where they were in the home. Sentencing was further postponed when the probation officer assigned to the case took her own life in late October.

Rooney said Wednesday there was no evidence Graham hid any of the guns after the shooting and noted the prosecutor agreed to drop the charge. Rooney said the other two guns were secured in the garage.

Douglas Graham bought two of the guns from his father's friend at a gun show 10 to 12 years ago, Rooney said, reading from a pre-sentence report. He never registered them because he knew he got them illegally. The third gun was left behind by a tenant of a building Graham owns.

Rooney, in agreeing to the plea deal, noted that the report indicated Sheila Graham, while upset at her ex-husband for leaving guns in the home, did not feel he should be further punished.

Sheila Graham's sister, Maureen Kearney Hutchins, said by e-mail Wednesday that she was upset with the sentence.

"I can't believe it," she wrote. "I guess if you want to leave guns around where kids can get them, move to Putnam County."