Air Force Veteran Detained Without Bail
An Air Force veteran with no criminal record and no violent actions is being detained without bail for mere possession of a firearm without a license.
Update - Petition for Emergency Relief Filed
In early August, Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) retained a legal team to help free Kyle Culotta. An Air Force Veteran, Mr. Culotta has been detained in Massachusetts without bail since June 27th based upon a finding of “dangerousness” by the Worcester Superior Court-for simply possessing firearms without a license.
Attorney Dan Hagan and his legal team filed an emergency petition before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) for Kyle’s outright release or, at least, a grant of bail. A hearing date has not yet been set, but we will keep you updated once we have heard from Kyle’s attorneys.
“On August 13, my team—including Daniel Kelly and Kyle DeSousa—and I filed an emergency bail petition with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of Kyle Culotta,” said Attorney Dan Hagan. “The lower courts wrongly denied him bail as a so-called ‘dangerous person,’ a severe injustice. We are hopeful the Supreme Judicial Court will correct this error and grant Mr. Culotta bail. Whatever the outcome, this is only the beginning of our fight.”
GOAL Retains Legal Team to Help Free Kyle Culotta
Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) has retained a legal team of top Massachusetts criminal attorneys and Second Amendment attorneys to help defend and free Kyle Wayne Culotta. Attorney Dan Hagan and his team out of Springfield will be representing Kyle moving forward.
Second Amendment News Media Coverage
Guns & Gadgets - Free Kyle
Jared Yanis of Guns & Gadgets does an episode on the detainment of Kyle.
What Happened to Kyle:
GOAL was recently contacted by a woman whose fiancé was arrested for possession of firearms, one being a large capacity. The couple had been living in Arizona and had just returned to Massachusetts to live near family. For the most part they were living out of their car and short on money. To get back on their feet, they were trying to make some money doing food app deliveries. In doing so they were stopped by police for having an expired registration.
Because the car would have to be towed, the officer asked them to get what they needed out of the car. In the process, the officer said he noticed a “greenish” ammunition box and asked if there were guns in the car. The driver (Kyle) said yes and was subsequently arrested for possession of firearms without a license, one of them a large capacity.
He is now being detained without bail under the Commonwealth’s dangerousness statute. The law allows citizens to be held without bail for mere possession of a firearm without a license for up to 120 days.
“The fact that a U.S. citizen can be detained without bail for exercising a civil right without government permission is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” said Jim Wallace, Executive Director of GOAL. “Kyle is an Air Force veteran with no criminal record that we are aware of, yet he was declared dangerous by the state. If he was pulled over a few miles north in New Hampshire he would have only been charged with an unregistered vehicle.”
Since the passage of Chapter 135, GOAL has desperately been warning non-residents, and potentially new residents, about the convoluted laws. Here is a perfect example of how Governor Healey’s bigotry toward the Second Amendment Community is destroying lives.
GOAL is currently consulting with legal counsel to see if there is anything we can do. We are also reviewing the Commonwealth’s dangerousness statute to consider filing legislation to amend it. Only prohibited persons or persons being arrested for a violent underlying offense should be considered potentially dangerous. Not an innocent citizen caught up in unconstitutional laws.
