Michigan Prosecutor Drops Case Against Mom Accused of Violating State’s Gun Storage Law

A couple of weeks ago we reported on a bizarre and troubling case in Michigan, where prosecutors were seeking a ten-year prison sentence for a mom accused of violating the state’s gun storage law. Though the assistant D.A. in Saginaw County who was overseeing the prosecution agreed during a hearing to reduce the charge against Rachel Esckelson to a five-year felony, she was still zealously pursuing the criminal charges against the mom… at least until a few days ago. 

As MLive.com reports, after Esckelson’s attorney Alan Crawford filed a brief outlining why the prosecution was uncalled for, Assistant Prosecutor Shellbe A. Sanborn ended up dismissing the case against his client.

Crawford argued lawmakers’ intent was to prevent minors from being able to easily access guns with which they could carry out mass shootings. This does not apply to Esckelson’s situation, as her guns were properly locked, her minor son did not have direct access to them, and another adult — the teen’s sister — opened the safe, Crawford argued.

The prosecution misinterpreted the statute’s intended purpose and Esckelson should never have been charged, Crawford wrote.

“There is nothing more horrifying than being charged with a criminal offense,” Crawford said after the prosecution dismissed the case. “This was an unfortunate set of circumstances that were then compounded by the issuance of a baseless criminal charge.”

Esckelson has maintained she was in compliance with the law.

“I hate that she and her family had to go through this process, but it’s over and behind them now,” Crawford said. He went on to thank prosecutors for “acknowledging a mistake here and taking the necessary step to rectify that error by moving for a full dismissal.”

Esckelson’s teenage son and adult daughter were at the family home back in February when the daughter spotted several coyotes while walking the family dogs. Afraid that the animals would go after the Esckelson’s pets, the 19-year-old opened the family’s gun safe and allowed her 14-year-old sibling to retrieve a handgun. Both of Esckelson’s children testified that she allowed her son access to the safe, but only under adult supervision, with Esckelton and her 19-year-old daughter the only ones who had a key to unlock the safe. 

As the 14-year-old was walking down the steps of the back porch he slipped on ice and accidentally discharged the pistol, shooting himself in the leg. Thankfully the injury wasn’t life threatening, but after a police investigation the Saginaw County D.A. still filed criminal charges against Rachel Esckelson and pursued the maximum penalty allowed under Michigan’s gun storage statute. 

Frankly, the judge in the case should have tossed the charges at the end of the preliminary hearing, but instead she instructed both sides to submit briefs outlining their position. Either Sanborn was persuaded by Crawford’s reasoning or she could see the writing on the wall and figured it’s better to drop the charges rather than lose in court. 

It’s great that Rachel Esckelson is no longer facing the prospect of prison time for allowing her son supervised access to the firearms kept in her locked safe, but the fact that prosecutors choose to ignore the details of this case as well as the exceptions written into the gun storage law is disturbing in and of itself. All it takes is one overzealous prosecutor looking to make an example out of a parent for an injustice to occur, and Esckelson’s case shows just how easy it is for that to happen.