Commissioner with gun in luggage faces new trial date

Canyon County Commission Chairman David Ferdinand, who was stopped at the Boise Airport Feb. 28 with a gun in his carry-on luggage, faces a second trial on the misdemeanor charge.

But the juror who reportedly triggered a mistrial in Ferdinand's case two weeks ago says she believes the charge never should have gone to court.

A court-imposed gag order "to stop prejudicial extrajudicial statements to press" prevents the prosecution and defense from publicly discussing the case. Boise City Attorney Cary Colaianni, whose office is prosecuting Ferdinand, would say only that the court has rescheduled the trial for Dec. 12 and his office will be ready.

But former juror Kisha Majors has come forward, identifying herself as the person who prompted a hung jury Aug. 29. At the end of about seven hours of deliberation, Majors said, she was the only one of six jurors - the normal jury size in misdemeanor cases - who argued that the commissioner was innocent.

"I was so frustrated I told the bailiff to tell the judge I was done," the Garden City resident said Friday.

Ferdinand is charged with violating an Idaho law that forbids knowingly carrying a deadly weapon into a secured portion of an airport. He paid a $1,500 federal fine but pleaded not guilty to the state charge, insisting he was innocent of that misdemeanor because he didn't know the handgun was in his bag when he tried to go through airport security on his way to a conference in Washington, D.C.

The prosecutor in the case argued that since Ferdinand had placed the gun in his bag, he knew it was there and was legally responsible even if he later forgot about it.

Majors said most of the jurors seemed to accept that argument, but she did not.

"Yes, I believe he was neglectful, but that's not what we were there to decide," she said. "There wasn't any evidence that he knew."

Boise police interviewed Ferdinand at the time and determined he had made "an honest mistake," a police spokesman said in March. They issued him a citation and confiscated his gun, then allowed him to board the plane.

Ferdinand has said he went through his bag before heading to the airport Feb. 28, removing several items that wouldn't get through security, including a Swiss Army knife and a bottle of hand sanitizer. But, he said, he simply didn't notice his handgun was in a deep pocket in the bag. During his trial, Ferdinand said he routinely carries the gun in the bag but had moved it to a more obscure pocket so children couldn't accidentally get into it when he attended a birthday party.

Majors said she believed that Ferdinand, who has a concealed weapon permit, could have overlooked the gun when he went through his bag, especially after "I stuck my arm in the pocket it was in, and it went all the way up to my elbow."

In June, before the court imposed a gag order, defense attorney David Leroy said the city should drop the case and was wasting public resources to give "special treatment" to Ferdinand. But Colaianni said the opposite is true, and that his office would prosecute anyone, regardless of position, who brought a weapon through airport security.

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447