Professor Who Took Gun to Airport Cleared of Charge

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but a lapse of memory can be, a federal magistrate ruled this week.

Ohio State University professor Frank Holtzhauer has been cleared of illegally carrying a loaded gun in his briefcase when he tried to board a plane at Port Columbus on July 11, 2005.

"The defendant never deliberately closed his eyes to the fact he had his gun when he entered the airport security area," said U.S. Magistrate Mark R. Abel, in an opinion released Tuesday. "He simply forgot."

Abel said Holtzhauer, an associate professor of health at Ohio State, had a rough weekend because of illness, and as he hurried to make a flight to Boston that Monday morning, he grabbed his briefcase on the way out the door.

When a security screener asked for a second look at his briefcase, Holtzhauer remembered he had put the .32-caliber handgun inside the Friday before, Abel said. Holtzhauer told the screener he had the gun and cooperated with police.

Holtzhauer, who has a concealed-carry permit, has said he took the gun for target practice on a previous trip and forgot to remove it from the briefcase.

Although Holtzhauer may have been reckless, the U.S. attorney's office failed to prove he knowingly brought the gun, an element needed to convict him, Abel said.

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