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*Pete Bradley indicted on federal gun charges 4-08-2009!* "Bradley was convicted of assault on a female, a North Carolina crime “that does not contain as an element that there be a domestic relationship, although that fact is present in the underlying case,” the department said in its motion to dismiss. But in striking down the Appeals Court ruling in a case from West Virginia, the Supreme Court said state laws don't have to specifically mention domestic violence to fall under the gun ban. It is enough, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her majority opinion, that the victim of such a crime be involved in a domestic relationship with the attacker. “If the case had gone the other way, there are thousands of people who currently are prohibited from buying guns who would have been allowed to buy guns,” said Paul Heimke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Women in abusive relationships would have been more at risk. Police officers responding to domestic violence calls would have been more at risk.” The federal law is an important means of protecting victims of domestic violence and their children, said Valerie Collins, executive director of Helpmate, an Asheville agency providing crisis-level support for victims of domestic violence. “The use of weapons or even the threat of the use of weapons in the home is often utilized by perpetrators of domestic violence,” Collins said. “The presence of a gun in any of these homes puts victims and their children at risk.” U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., author of the 1996 law, applauded the court ruling. He said the law had kept more than 150,000 guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. In the assault case against Bradley, prosecutors said at his trial that he struck his wife in the head during the early morning hours of Aug. 31, 2005, leaving a lump the size of a golf ball. Officers said they found Patsy Bradley scared and crying in her car at a neighbor's house. Bradley was sentenced in Buncombe County Superior Court to 30 days in jail after a jury found him guilty. Patsy Bradley was found dead in her home about a month after the assault. The State Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation, and an autopsy report released later by the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner called her death a suicide prompted by depression and a troubled marriage. A prosecutor told jurors at Bradley's assault trial that Bradley told officers investigating the death, “I guess she won't be testifying against me.” Bradley testified he didn't strike his wife."
-The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-Asheville Citizen-Times
(2-26-2009)
THE INDEPENDENT TORCH Current Issue - The Last Week in February 2006Current Issue - The Last Week in February 2006A Sealed Murder Indictment Is Said to Be In the Works Against Former Woodfin Police Chief Pete Bradley In The Recent “Suicide” of His Wife. Several reliable sources—insiders—have told The Independent Torch that a sealed first degree murder indictment is in the works against former Woodfin Police Chief Pete Bradley in the death of his wife at their Biltmore Forest home several months ago. Her death was first declared a suicide. For legal reasons the indictment has been kept sealed by the DA’s office and is not yet an official indictment, but is set to be brought forward any day. The delay is said to be because further evidence has been developing. The Torch will carry a fuller story soon as this case develops.The quiet investigation has been carried on by the State Bureau of Investigation. Some of the evidence found since the alleged suicide includes purported gunpowder residue found on Bradley’s person.Law enforcement sources said that Bradley and a male companion were detained recently in a gay nightclub in South Carolina for impersonating a Buncombe County narcotics officer.At the X-ray screening device at the Buncombe County Courthouse a mug shot of Bradley is taped on the back side to be seen by security deputies, who have been alerted that Bradley may enter that entrance. He is suspected of having made threats against certain personnel and of being armed and dangerous

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