Attorney: Witnesses located in road-rage case

July 29, 2004
Athens News

The attorney for an Athens physician charged with having pulled a gun on another man in a traffic confrontation said Tuesday that police have reportedly found a number of independent witnesses of the incident.

Attorney Herman Carson, who represents ophthalmologist Jeffrey McAdoo, said that from what he has heard of the new witness reports, they appear to be "excellent" for his client's chances of beating the charge against him.

"It appears ... that there are at least five impartial witnesses right now that have given statements to the Athens Police Department," Carson said.

K. Robert Toy, the attorney for James Kirkendall, the other man involved in the incident, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

McAdoo has been charged with aggravated menacing, based on a July 9 incident in which he admittedly pulled a gun on James Kirkendall of Athens, after Kirkendall approached McAdoo's vehicle on South Shafer Street to complain about McAdoo having cut him off in traffic.

McAdoo, who has a concealed-carry firearm permit, claims that Kirkendall assaulted him, and that he brandished his gun in self-defense. Kirkendall denies having assaulted McAdoo, but has been charged with menacing, a lesser misdemeanor charge than the one McAdoo is facing.

While the case against McAdoo is pending, he has had to give up his concealed-carry permit in accordance with state law.

In a previous story on the case, The Athens NEWS suggested that McAdoo might have been the first concealed-carry permit holder in Ohio to pull his gun since the law was enacted earlier this year.

However, Chad Baus of the group Ohioans for Concealed Carry reported Tuesday, "This is not the first time that an Ohio (concealed carry permit) holder has pulled his weapon in self-defense." The Ohio General Assembly passed the concealed-carry statute in January, and it went into effect in April.

Baus cited the case of Habib Howard, a 23-year-old convenience store employee from Toledo, who shot one of two men who robbed the store in May. According to news reports, Howard, whose family owns the carryout where he worked, had only had his concealed-carry permit for three days when the incident occurred.

The alleged robber was not killed, and Howard was not charged criminally. Howard told the Toledo Blade that the robber was armed, and that he, Howard, used his handgun to save his own life.

Baus suggested that permit holders using their guns to frighten off aggressors probably happens more often than is reported in the media.

"The truth is, most of the time you're not going to hear about incidents where people pull their firearm in self-defense," he said. He added that in his opinion, a person would be justified in pulling a weapon if another driver got out of his car and came up to the first person's vehicle.

"Any time someone gets out of their car and approaches someone else, I'm going to consider that threatening," he said.

CORRECTION:
The facts will be born out in court. Until they are, OFCC has been very consistent in refraining from commenting on this story, other than to say that it seems understandable that having an enraged man exit his vehicle at a stop light and approach while screaming, could understandably be seen as threatening.

Only a prosecutor (who could decide to drop the charges) judge or jury can decide if Dr. McAdoo took the proper action to defend himself against this alleged threatening behavior.

The Athens News has published a correction in its August 2 issue.