Student’s felony weapons charges dropped

Felony weapons charges against Cal State Long Beach student Gregory Mitre were dropped on Friday after testimonial letters came out attesting to the defendant’s character.

Mitre didn’t escape punishment altogether, but was given one semester of conduct probation by CSULB’s Judicial Affairs.  Anthony Salerno, Mitre’s attorney, said this was the lowest level of sanction that Judicial Affairs can hand out.

Within the testimonial letters, two people also said a CSULB resident assistant told them and Mitre in an early fall semester dorm meeting that possessing a knife in the residence halls was permissible if it remained in their rooms, said Anthony Salerno, Mitre’s attorney. 

Stan Olin, CSULB housing director, said that the residence assistant denied any account of saying this to residents.

Olin said having weapons on campus completely goes against CSULB’s housing policy. “You can’t have weapons in the halls.  Period,” Olin said.

Using their camera system, University Police caught Mitre showing his unloaded paintball guns to people at Parkside Commons on Sept. 23.  Police later found steel throwing cards, throwing stars, knives and daggers belonging to Mitre in his dorm room.  

Mitre was charged Sept. 25 by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office with possession of a deadly weapon and possession of a knife on university grounds. Steel throwing cards are considered deadly weapons and are illegal to possess in California.

Mitre pleaded not guilty to both charges on Oct. 10.

Salerno said the main reason behind the district attorney’s decision was that the case proved Mitre meant no harm.

Mitre, who had the knives as ornaments, had bought the knives as a collector and received some of them as gifts, and was unaware that some of these items are illegal to possess in California, Salerno said.

Mitre was forced to remove any weapons from his room, according to Olin.

“He just seems like a young kid who really didn’t think about it,” said Jon Millman, who has had some contact with Mitre as an advisor and is a coach for “Beach!  Paintball,” a national champion paintball team made up of CSULB students.

CSULB Housing and Residential Life organized a meeting with housing staff to reinforce its message that no weapons are allowed in the halls, according to Olin.  The housing department also sent out an e-mail informing students of weapons policies.

The resident assistant who supposedly said it was permissible to possess knives on campus has been visited with and remains in his position, Olin said. 

Salerno said that college students may be unaware of a laundry list of weapons that are illegal to possess in California: billy clubs, metal/brass knuckles, blow dart guns and steel-throwing cards.

“Just be careful, because a lot of things you might have are illegal even if you don’t mean any harm,” Salerno said.

Millman said he was concerned that Mitre’s actions would hamper the paintball team’s efforts to make the idea of paintball guns on campus more accepting. 

The team recently asked University Police to let them have tournaments on campus, Millman said, but fears Mitre’s situation may now have hurt that effort.

“[Mitre’s case] is just an example of what they can use [against us],” Millman said.

Olin said he isn’t worried about resident assistants giving out wrong information because of their training.  While he says that they are human and can make mistakes, he said he still believes in their integrity.

“I don’t think anyone would consciously give out wrong information,” Olin said.  “We got a good group. [We’re] real proud of them.”