Cops Find Firearms in NY Lawyer's Home; He Says Many Guns Don't Work, All of His Were Bought Legally
Updated: A New York attorney with an entertainment law focus is facing a felony weapons case, after police said they searched his Bronxville home and found a number of firearms.
Randall Cutler, 43, was charged Nov. 1 with felony criminal possession of a weapon and misdemeanor menacing in the Bronxville Village Court case, according to the Bronxville Daily Voice. A subsequent Peekskill Daily Voice article provides additional details.
Bronxville Police Chief Christopher Satriale reportedly said the weapons were unregistered and illegally purchased.
However, Cutler, who has been released on bail, told the ABA Journal in a telephone interview Monday that he expects to plead not guilty to all charges, has issues with the manner in which the search was conducted and insists he has never owned a firearm that wasn’t legally purchased.
All agree that police were called to Cutler’s home because of an argument he was having with his brother. But Cutler says it was his brother, not he, who was the aggressor.
The newspaper articles say police got a warrant to search for the gun they were told the attorney had brandished during an argument. The search reportedly turned up multiple weapons, including an AK-47, seven banana clips loaded with more than 200 rounds for the firearm, a sawed-off shotgun, multiple handguns, a speed loader and other equipment and ammunition (the earlier article has a photograph).
Cutler, who operates a solo practice and is listed on his LinkedIn bio as the president of a music company, contends police got the warrant hours after they actually conducted a search of his home.
After trying his hand at a couple of businesses in Mississippi for eight years—one of which involved his working as a licensed gunsmith on weapons there—he returned to New York, he explains to the ABA Journal.
Without getting into all details of the case, he insisted that “every gun I ever purchased was purchased over the counter” and said photos clearly showed, to those familiar with weapons, that a number of those seized from his home were not in operational condition.
Cutler has represented a number of rap and hip-hop artists, as a profile in Colby Magazine details. He got his bachelor’s degree in 1991 from Colby College and earned his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law.
He has not actively promoted his New York practice since returning to the state, because he didn’t want to get too busy, Cutler said. And now, in an ironic twist of fate, his phone is ringing off the hook due to the free publicity about his arrest.
“I’m getting all these phone calls from people I haven’t heard from in years,” he says, calling the national news that he is back in practice in the Big Apple “a boon.”
Updated at 5:53 p.m. to include information from Cutler interview.
