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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Intellectual Firepower



He's been teaching sociology at a local college for over a decade. His lawyer says that except for the "200 pistols, 100 shotguns, 50 rifles, 18,000 rounds of ammunition, 75 sharp-edged martial-arts weapons, more than a dozen manuals on the making of explosives, two grenade launchers, and four bulletproof vests" in his possession, he "seems like an otherwise peaceful man."




'Timothy L. Jacobs, charged Thursday with illegal possession of three assault weapons after police removed 350 guns from a house and barn on Highland Avenue last week, is an associate professor of sociology at Naugatuck Valley Community College.

He shares the property with his estranged ex-girlfriend and their 5-year-old son. The child's mother, Anne Marie Kelly Jacobs, has full custody of the boy. The couple's relationship broke down a year ago, and Jacobs had been living in the barn, where most of the weapons were found. The mother first called police Oct. 5 after finding six loaded handguns in a dresser drawer inside the house.

A spokeswoman for the state community college system did not immediately return a phone call Thursday afternoon seeking comment about Jacobs' job status. He has taught at Naugatuck Valley at least since 1994 and earns about $70,000 annually.




The 59-year-old Jacobs, a thin, slightly stooped man with collar-length, scraggly gray hair, was arraigned in Superior Court Thursday on three felony counts of possessing an assault weapon. It was illegal for Jacobs, formerly of the Moodus section of East Haddam, to have the weapons because he failed to obtain the required certificate of possession from state police and to register the guns, prosecutors said.

He was ordered jailed, with bail set at $75,000, and he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

His attorney, John Maxwell, argued for a lower bail, saying his client has had serious psychological problems for years, but was not a flight risk.

"He seems like an otherwise peaceful man," Maxell said after the court hearing. "Certainly, he has some issues. He apparently collected the guns."



In court, Assistant State's Attorney Craig Nowak said that the charges were serious and that possession of the illegal guns was highly troubling. Superior Court Judge Barbara Jongbloed refused to lower the bond, and she barred Jacobs from having any contact with the child or the child's mother if he were to make bail.

Maxell noted that the guns were safely stowed in the Middletown police property room, but that was of no solace to Kelly Jacobs' attorney, Heidi Alexander.

"I wouldn't trust this guy with chemicals for the lawn," Alexander said in court.

Nowak told the judge that federal authorities are also considering whether to seek an indictment against Jacobs for possession of a fourth illegal weapon - a "streetsweeper" shotgun with a revolving ammunition drum for quick loading. That firearm is illegal in the United States, Nowak said later.

After finding the six loaded, unsecured handguns in a dresser drawer, Kelly Jacobs told police she was concerned for the safety of her son, according to court records. That call led to the seizure by police of 350 weapons over a period of a week. Kelly Jacobs also obtained a restraining order against Jacobs.

The weapons cache included 200 pistols, 100 shotguns, 50 rifles, 18,000 rounds of ammunition, 75 sharp-edged martial-arts weapons, more than a dozen manuals on the making of explosives, two grenade launchers, and four bulletproof vests, city police said.

Nowak said after the hearing that Middletown police and federal agents were studying three additional assault weapons to see whether they were manufactured after a national assault-weapon ban was passed. If they were, it would be illegal for Jacobs to have possessed them.

Sgt. Scott Aresco, a Middletown police spokesman, said in a press release that "additional charges have not been ruled out."'