Claud “Tex” McIver remains free on bond — for now.
But a hearing will continue next week in Fulton County court to decide if the 74-year-old Atlanta attorney should go to jail after authorities found a Glock pistol in the his sock drawer while executing a search for documents. Prosecutors have argued that the discovery of the firearm means McIver’s bail should be revoked.
It is the latest bizarre twist in a case that has had plenty of them. McIver shot and killed his wife, Atlanta businesswoman Diane McIver, in September as the couple rode in their SUV near Piedmont Park.
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Atlanta Police in December charged McIver with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in the death of his wife, which he has maintained was an accident. As a condition of his bond, McIver is not allowed to have a firearm.
Now he faces possible jail time.
The DA is still investigating the McIver case and is looking into a possible financial motive.
Credit: Henry P. Taylor
Credit: Henry P. Taylor
“His actions demonstrate a tremendous, tremendous safety concern to the point where his actions constitute a danger to others,” Fulton Assistant District Attorney Clint Rucker argued, citing McIver’s “propensity for dangerous conduct.”
Brian Salters, an investigator with the DA’s office, testified that while searching McIver’s Buckhead condo he found a Glock 19-9 MM semi-automatic handgun inside a box that was “big enough to have a USB port in it.”
The gun was not seized because it wasn’t targeted in the search warrant. Another warrant was obtained, Rucker said, but when they returned to McIver’ condo on Monday, the gun wasn’t there.
“We kind of came up empty,” Rucker said.
Defense attorney Stephen Maples sought to quash the motion to revoke bond, saying the search that produced it was “unlawful, illegal … then everything seized in the search is also unlawful.”
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But Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said he would not take up that motion until deciding on the bond revocation.
The hearing will be continued next week with the cross examination of Tammy Johnson, estate manager for Diane McIver.
Johnson said she removed the gun from the sock drawer at the request of Maples. Tex McIver later asked her to photograph the gun and its serial number and give the photos to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills. McIver has a ranch in Eatonton, located in Putnam County.
“I’ve touched that gun twice,” Johnson said, on Friday and Sunday.
On Monday, she hired an attorney.
McIver's gun troubles go back to at least 1990, when he faced criminal charges for firing at a car containing three teenagers outside his DeKalb County home.
A grand jury charged McIver with three counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm in connection with a crime, and criminal damage to property. But prosecutors declined to pursue the case after the parties settled it privately, according to court records.
No one was injured.
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