Attorney: Woman With Gun At DFW Passed Through During Shift Change
DFW AIRPORT (CBSDFW.COM) - The attorneys representing Judith Kenney of Little Elm stand by their defense that the 65-year-old mistakenly carried a handgun onto an American Airlines plane Wednesday at DFW airport. "It was really and truly an honest mistake on her part," said Kenney's attorney, Gary Redman.
Redman says Kenney, who is also a lawyer, worked a late night before getting up early in the morning, and that she was unaware that the gun was tucked away in her compter bag. Redman says his client passed through the TSA security check point with no problems, but noticed something just before her bags were scanned.
"Right before she went through the security, she remembers that TSA was changing shifts, it appeared," explained Redman. "The person who sits and looks at the computer monitor had left and then another gentlemen came and sat in that seat and he was adjusting the computer monitor," the Dallas attorney added.
Kenney's attorney says his client got on the plane and then minutes later, two officers came aboard. "After the officers walked through the plane and looked at the passengers, there was an announcement for the female passengers to get off the plane," said Redman. She was arrested on the ramp that connects the plane to the terminal.
Chaim Koppel is an Aviation Security Analyst based in Southlake. Koppel says the scanners likely caught the gun, so he believes it was human error that led to the security breakdown. "It's enough that one person was not paying attention for two or three seconds," explained Koppel. "Things like this can happen. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the business and it's probably going to happen again," added Koppel.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) declined comment, pending the results of its investigation.
Since DFW airport is located in Tarrant and Dallas counties, it has yet to be determined which County D.A. will get the case. In either county, Kenney's attorneys want this to go to the Grand Jury, because they believe the Grand Jury will see this as a simple mistake by a woman with no criminal history.
