Supreme Court Justice Pays Fine for Carrying Knife in Airport

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ A state Supreme Court justice said he paid a $750 fine for trying to sneak a pocketknife on board an airplane last month.

Justice Thomas G. Saylor Jr. was mailed notice of the fine last week and has since paid it, he said.

''I just wanted to get this matter behind me. Really, my only comment is, and I said it at the time, I did a really dumb thing which I obviously regret,'' he said.

Saylor and his wife were going through a checkpoint for a flight from Harrisburg International Airport to Philadelphia when screeners found a Swiss Army-type knife attached to his key chain, police said.

The knife was later found in a shoe inside his carry-on luggage when Saylor went back through the screening area a second time, police said. Saylor said the knife was a gift from a friend.

He said airport authorities handled his brief detention ''very professionally.''

Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. previously said no state criminal charges would be filed in the matter, and the U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg also has declined to prosecute.