Visiting for conference
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:37 PM on Thursday, July 17, 2008
An Albany man who came to town for a conference was arrested on a felony charge and jailed for more than 18 hours because he had a gun in his hotel room.
Eric Dewayne Baylis, 45, said he didn't know that the hotel was owned by the University of Georgia, which put him in violation of a state law forbidding weapons within school safety zones.
Baylis, a maintenance worker with the Albany Housing Authority, was attending a four-day conference for the Georgia Housing Authority and Redevelopment Authority, held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center & Hotel on South Lumpkin Street.
His employers made the lodging arrangements and he had no idea the hotel is owned by UGA.
"I actually didn't know (it) was campus property," Baylis said Thursday, soon after posting a $2,000 bond to get out of jail.
"I carry my gun with me when I'm on the road traveling, and I took it out of my suitcase and just left it on the bed," Baylis said. "When the maid went through the room cleaning it and saw it, she told the manager, who called campus security."
Georgia Center Director Bill Crowe said the hotel will immediately change the form guests receive at check-in, paperwork that lists forbidden items and activities, like smoking.
"We are going to correct that," Crowe said. "I hate that the guy got arrested. We could have given him better information when he checked in."
During a lunch break Wednesday, Baylis got a call from the front desk that the police wanted to speak with him, he said.
Officers didn't lecture him on gun laws or allow him to move the pistol from his room to his car; they arrested Baylis and took him to the Clarke County Jail.
He was booked on a charge of possession of a weapon on school property about 6 p.m. Wednesday and bonded out at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
Whether the man made an honest mistake or intentionally broke the law is a question to be decided in court, according to UGA Police Lt. Lisa Boone.
"The court can make whatever determination it wishes, but the Georgia Center is university property and in a school safety zone," Boone said.
More than 19,000 people attended conferences at the Georgia Center last year, and most stayed at least one night in the hotel, according to Crowe.
In the past, police didn't arrest guests who mistakenly brought weapons into the UGA-owned hotel, but now officers take no chances because gun violence on school grounds has been on the rise, according to Crowe.
"Historically, the police would walk them with their belongings to their cars, but not anymore, with all of the things that have been happening on campuses," he said.
Baylis said he made an honest mistake and didn't deserve to be arrested. He hopes his case will be dismissed when he returns to Athens for court Aug. 12.
And the way police handled the mistake has soured his feelings toward UGA.
"The campus security overdid it," he said. "Needless to say, I'm a Georgia Tech fan now."
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 071808
http://onlineathens.com/stories/071808/news_2008071800326.shtmlThe hotel is owned by UGA but it is NOT on campus! If this holds up as "School property" I can see the gun grabbers using this loophole to their benefit. Just list everything under the Department of Education and we're screwed!
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