Oct 5, 2021 3 min read

District Judge Robert Redlinger said he felt he had no choice but to acquit James Roman during an hourlong trial Monday afternoon despite noting there was clear evidence that the row official brought a loaded handgun into the courthouse Aug. 20.

“At this point, it says knowingly,” Redlinger said about the statute while also casting some doubt on the claim that Roman did not know he had a gun in his bag.

Redlinger noted that there is identical terminology in laws prohibiting firearms from being brought into airports, but people who do so face harsh penalties whether they knew there was a weapon in their bag or not.

Roman, 49, of Canonsburg, the county’s Register of Wills, was charged Aug. 24 with a misdemeanor charge of bringing a firearm into a court facility four days after sheriff’s deputies said they saw a handgun in his personal bag while it was going through the X-ray machine. The charge was downgraded from a misdemeanor to a summary just before the trial began in magistrate court because Roman has a concealed carry permit.

Deputy Jack Camerson testified he relieved other deputies during their lunch break when he sat down at the X-ray machine and saw a clear image of a handgun with cartridges inside. He was shocked by the image on the screen, asking for other deputies to confirm what he saw.

“I sit down, pull down my mask (and) see the firearm,” Camerson testified.

Another deputy, who was not named during the summary trial, was monitoring the X-ray machine when Roman went through security. No one else went through security during the shift change, when Camerson sat down and saw the image in a freeze frame on the screen. Deputy Shawn Kief was working the metal detecting machine when Camerson alerted other deputies, and they recalled Roman was the last person through security.

Kief and another deputy went to Roman’s office at the Register of Wills and asked him if he had a handgun in his bag. Kief testified that Roman looked in his bag and said he did before apologizing to the deputies. They ordered him to return it to his truck, although the deputies never saw the actual weapon.

“I have to go to my truck. I have a gun in my bag,” Kief testified that Roman told his staff.

Roman’s attorney, Keith Campbell, argued that there was no evidence that a functioning handgun was in his client’s bag, and even if there was, they heard no testimony from the deputies that he took it into the courthouse on purpose.

“There was no proof, if he did take his firearm through, he did it knowingly,” Campbell said. “There was a lot of conjecture, but no proof.”

Deputy Attorney General Heather Serrano said the X-ray machine showed cartridges inside the weapon just after surveillance video showed Roman through security, and he later admitted to having a gun to his row office staff and the deputies.

Redlinger agreed that the object in Roman’s bag was a firearm, pointing out that he told deputies, “That’s my gun.” But the magistrate spent a longer time researching the statute before acquitting Roman of the summary offense while also indicating he disagreed with the language in the law.

“Something’s got to change,” Redlinger said of the statue.

Roman was elected Register of Wills in 2019.