Everyone’s favorite gun-handling expert, DEA agent Lee Paige of the agency’s Orlando office, has provided gunnies with years of YouTube guffaws and keyboard-fouling coffeespits as we’ve relived the, er, “professional” demonstrating gun safety for a room full of impressionable yoots back in 2004. You might think that kind of publicly self-inflicted beclowning would induce someone to slink away and keep a generally low profile. You’d be wrong.
The now former undercover agent has been on a personal crusade ever since the indisputable video evidence of his incompetence hit the intertubes. His quest: to wring some cash out of his employer over the release of the video…
That’s right, Paige has argued (and lost) in court claiming that his privacy was violated when someone at the agency let the once-viral video loose in the electronic wilds.
Paige sued the DEA in Washington federal district court, alleging that leaking the video violated his privacy rights. A roughly four-minute clip of the shooting—cut and copied from a longer tape of the lecture—made its way online.
A federal trial judge ruled in December 2010 for the DEA, saying among other things that Paige has failed to identify the leaker and cannot therefore show that any person acted willfully and intentionally. The identity of the leaker remains unknown despite a two-year DEA internal investigation.
The judge, Jack Shanstrom, also noted the shooting occurred in a public forum while Paige was on duty. Paige, once an undercover agent, said the publicity the video received prohibits him from working undercover.
But as LegalTimes tells us, Paige remains unbowed. He’s back again, ambulance-chaser in tow, arguing his case in front of a federal appeals court in Washington.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today spent much of its time examining whether the four-minute video of the shooting was ever a part of the DEA’s “system of records.”
That’s a threshold question for the appeals court. To convince the court that he is entitled to protection under federal privacy laws, Paige must show that the video clip was a part of the DEA’s record system.
Paige apparently figures the only way to find the silver lining in being viciously snarked upon and embarrassed in front of a good percentage of the world’s computer owners is to extract a nice chunk of taxpayer money from the DEA. Here’s hoping Agent Paige enjoys every bit as much success in his legal efforts as he did in his safety demonstration.
Still make’s me smack my fore head in rage over how stupid that was.
It seems that after shooting himself in the leg, Agent Lee (please turn the) Paige is bound and determined to shoot himself in the foot. Hey, Lee, you’re an arrogant schmuck. If you’re smart, you’ll just let it go at that.
Well, if his lawsuit doesn’t bear any fruit, he could join Plaxico in the “negligent discharge self injury” club and work for the Brady campaign.
That’s the first time I’ve seen what happened after he shot himself. So he continued the lecture (what the …) and brought out another gun, freaking out a number of kids. Nice.
Alright look … If you do undercover work, you probably shouldn’t be doing public lectures wearing a shirt that says “police” on the front and “DEA” on the back. Is this standard practice? To stick undercover agents out there representing the police? If so, it wasn’t the video of his stupidity that put his ability to do undercover work at risk. The practice of using undercover agents for publicity (even in schools) already did that.
I think the law enforcement indicia he wore were just for effect. Even though he is “plainclothes” showing up casually dressed in regular street clothes might have been a bit odd. I have issues with these “cop in the classroom” visits, anyway. Unless they’re SWAT, the firearm they carry should be de-emphasized, and the officer’s role in maintaining law and order should be emphasized. Things have gone south if a uniformed officer has to draw a weapon, and disastrously wrong if a plainclothes cop or undercover agent has to do it. Police (other than SWAT) generally aren’t gunfighters by trade – that weapon backs up the mantle of authority we’ve given them as a society to enforce our laws. Yes, the kiddies want to know about the pistol on the officer’s hip, but it needs to be brought into context. That said, I certainly don’t have an issue with an officer of any type giving a separate firearms safety briefing for kids. In fact, I think that gun safety, stripped of any political trappings, is a perfectly appropriate subject.
The moral of the story is- If you are going to do something stupid like shooting yourself in the foot, don’t do it in front of an audience with a camera running.
“The identity of the leaker remains unknown despite a two-year DEA internal investigation.” Probably because it was leaked by 200 ATF agents who were laughing themselves to death while they reviewed it.
“The judge, Jack Shanstrom, also noted the shooting occurred in a public forum while Paige was on duty. ” And I would just like to say, as a taxpayer, that I very much appreciate seeing the results of my taxpayer-financed firearms safety training for ATF agents. Hey, he even showed the Glock with the slide back to his fellow agents to have them verify that it was an “empty gun”. This kind of publicity certainly makes me proud of our Federal law enforcement agents.
Ooops, sorry, that’s DEA leakers and firearms safety training, not ATF. We all know that ATF represents the true experts on handling and moving guns – into Mexico. But they move them in a safe manner!
I am the only one on this blog qualified to make a posting about this inci-dhiialofnlkasddlkajsdlasjd
I’m surprised none of the children’s parents sued the SCHOOL for placing their children in mortal danger. If I had been one of those parents, I would have at the very least dressed down the school’s superintendent in a BIG way.
I heard that he had been promoted to the BOMB SQUAD.
Well…. After I got done rolling on the floor laughing my head off, I came to realize how easily an accidental discharge could happen to anyone from just a momentary lapse of awareness and adherence to safety procedures. His reputation, and the respect he had earned over a long career was destroyed in the few seconds that he took his eye off the ball. The truth is that he got lucky, really lucky, in that his momentary lapse of awareness only killed his reputation and not one of the fifty children in the classroom. Instead of blaming the DEA for ruining his “rep”, he should be eternally grateful that he did not have to live the rest of his life with the guilt of knowing that he was responsible for ending the
life of another.
AH didn’t FOEGET safety PROSEEJAHS ! AH JUS FOEGOT to take MAH CLIP out when AH did MAH brass safety check. But AH REMEMBAHD to snap the slide shut BEFOE AH pulled the TRIGGUH on MAH Glock FOETY safely pointed at MAH foot and shot MAHSEF !
“…said the publicity the video received prohibits him from working undercover.”
I’d say his inability to properly handle a loaded weapon prohibits ‘him’ from working with one again.
Is that little guy in the plaid shirt using the eye cup for a urinal?
The whole situation is indicative of society today. Here, a barely literate DEA “agent” has an ND (negligent discharge), not an AD (accidental discharge) as he states and who is to blame? Others, for letting the video become public.
Sorry, asshat, but when you have an ND on duty, you should lose the right to carry a firearm on the job. In the SF community, an ND is a career killer. You have proven yourself unsafe and unreliable and your reputation is the first casualty. When your rep is one of incompetence, it’s tough to shake. Paige may have only shot his foot (thankfully), but he put a .40 caliber HP through his career. Good riddance.
well if he seems to think he has reason to sue his department than all the parents definately have reason to sue him for endangering their children which he would loose. He should think about that but it seems that he doesn’t do much thinking. This is probably why he was giving lectures instead of real police work. Obviously he was in no way an undercover agent with this role. Of course just firing him for incompetence sooner was not possible and be politically correct. Let’s keep our children safe and stop the hiring for quota reasons. Trying to place these bafoons somewhere endangers someone.
In regards to this logic. Yes guns are tools, as spoons and cars and planes and other inanimate object are. But it comes down to the use, there’s a reason why nuclear bombs are restricted from the public. Automatic rifles, hand weapons, rifles, their sole purpose is for killing and doing it efficiently more than any other tool (i.e realistically try killing 50 ppl with a knife as quickly with an assault rifle) , whether the human motive is self defense or murder, spoons, cars, books though possible are not. Complete all out banning is unrealistic. Reduction or restriction is for common sense safety reasons, civilians should not have access to such things, they should be in the hands of trained military and police enforcement authorities. It just makes criminals stand out more if they own such things, face it also having a gun is just more for psychological security, are you realistically going to carry a gun in public all the time, or have the time to rush into your closet, unlock your box or cabinet, then load your gun when someone already bursts into your home or has a gun already held to your head if mugging you. It really offers little protection. It really comes down to pros and cons, for every story of successful use of protection using a firearm, there are countless more of murders, accidental deaths, mishandling. Is it really worth this cost? The reason why crims, psychologically deranged have guns is because the gun industry, us legislation, ingrained US culture, make it so readily and easily acceptable and available in the first place.
If fear is of an oppressive government or the country under attack the second amendment, by the logic that banning cars, spoons, books, fertilizer, gas tanks, saws, nailguns, fuel, matches, might be done as well if you ban guns is really implying they are just as effective weapons with a mind intent. So why need guns then? But if you are saying guns are indeed needed for protection you are then implying that they are indeed an effective tool for killing more so than the spoons and cars. And again it defies common sense to make such things so readily accessible to the public whether they be crims, law abiding citizens, or mentally deranged individuals or terrorists.
And PS the US is already under attack, from deranged lunatics and terrorists and your gun carrying has made no difference.
I see it in the US news EVERY MONTH OR TWO, if these were to happen in other countries believe me you would hear about it. But they don’t to what is now a pandemic extent for the united states.
Please…. please …please realize this has nothing to do with Democrats vs Republicans, or asking complete outlaw of guns in America which is unrealistic, they have their place in the military and enforcement groups… which means they aren’t toted by deranged persons in schools killing innocent children…it is just common sense.
Go to a Black Lives Matter protest. Have a poster with his face on it.
The caption underneath: “The Problem Isn’t Racism.”
I gave up on Corny years ago.. Speaking as one of his constituents..,
I would rather vote for a duck that him…(and have on occasions)…