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A California man who was arrested this week for having a wooden guillotine near the US Capitol grounds pleaded not guilty at a Wednesday arraignment to a misdemeanor weapon charge, court records show.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors sought to keep 35-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le in jail, but Judge Robert Hildum of the District of Columbia superior court declined the request, according to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n
At the Wednesday hearing, Hildum acknowledged having a guillotine amounted to a \u201cvery, very serious thing\u201d, but noted that Le did not threaten anyone with the device.<\/p>\n
The remark stood in contrast to prosecutors\u2019 accusation that Le, who has been charged with attempted possession of a prohibited weapon, had intent to use the guillotine \u201cunlawfully against another\u201d, per court docs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t even threaten anyone,\u201d Hildum reportedly said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t flee. He didn\u2019t do anything other than speak to police officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Capitol police officers observed the 10ft-tall antiquated decapitation device, historically used for executions in France and other European countries, in the back of a black Toyota Tacoma on Tuesday. The officers made contact with Le as he sat on the side of the wooden machine. The Tacoma had been parked illegally in a Library of Congress permit-only spot near the supreme court building.<\/p>\n
An officer asked Le whether the guillotine was working and could cut him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s the real deal, man,\u201d Le responded, according to a court affidavit.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Anthony Smith, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Le told Capitol police he had no specific reason for being near the federal grounds and that he did not have issues with any members of Congress, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear why he allegedly had the guillotine.<\/p>\n
Capitol police released photos on Wednesday of the large guillotine positioned upright in the truck bed, both of which they have seized.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter | Around 2-3 times a day<\/p>\n
Sign up to Breaking News US<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Le\u2019s brother, Kelvin Le, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday: \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019d hurt anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Le lacked partisan allegiances, but was unhappy with the state of politics, the LA Times reported. Kelvin Le said the guillotine may have been intended as a \u201csymbol of disapproval\u201d.<\/p>\n Kelvin Le described his brother as a free spirit, who is skilled in handcraft and enjoys taking road trips.<\/p>\n Le had resided in Julian, a mountain town 60 miles (97km) north east of San Diego.<\/p>\n An investigation into Le\u2019s background and his reasons for traveling to Washington is under way, according to Capitol police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A California man who was arrested this week for having a wooden guillotine near the US Capitol grounds pleaded not guilty at a Wednesday arraignment to a misdemeanor weapon charge, court records show. Prosecutors sought to keep 35-year-old Philan-Tam-Duy Le in jail, but Judge Robert Hildum of the District of Columbia superior court declined the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6456,667,8421,20074,25231,6804,1541,4836,5118],"class_list":{"0":"post-51961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-brought","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-capitol","11":"tag-grounds","12":"tag-guillotine","13":"tag-guilty","14":"tag-man","15":"tag-pleads","16":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}