Lawyer pleads not guilty to bringing gun into courthouse

MILFORD — A wellknown attorney charged last year with walking into a state courthouse with a loaded gun pleaded not guilty Thursday.

The attorney, 53-yearold Austin Ryan McGuigan of Lakeville, declined to comment, as did his own lawyer, Joseph Burns, following his appearance before Judge Auden Grogins in state Superior Court in Milford on a single count of carrying a firearm in a prohibited location, a class E felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

McGuigan represented Robert Gentile, a reputed mobster suspected of involvement in the infamous Gardner Museum heist, and appears often on local television as a legal analyst. In 2021, he was among the four finalists to be the state’s first inspector general overseeing investigations of police uses of deadly force statewide.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, McGuigan, a former prosecutor whose father served as chief state’s attorney, walked into the state Superior Court building in New Britain about 10:15 a.m. Oct. 4, 2022 and handed over a black backpack to go through the metal detector.

While the backpack was being scanned, according to the affidavit, a judicial marshal told police she “observed an object clearly identified as a firearm” inside, after which McGuigan stated, “Oh no, did I forget it in there?” The gun was confiscated and McGuigan taken into custody.

In a statement to police, included in the affidavit, McGuigan said he remembered that he had placed the gun, a Sig Sauer P365 9mm, inside the backpack “due to a mix-up at home.” He said he always had the gun on him while riding to the courthouse, and normally puts it in a lockbox in his vehicle. But while changing the batteries on the lockbox the night before, he told police, “he placed the firearm elsewhere when his children entered the room.”

“McGuigan stated he had forgotten he put the firearm inside his backpack until he entered the courthouse,” the affidavit says. “McGuigan stated it was completely an accident and he did not mean to bring the firearm into the courthouse.”

According to the affidavit, McGuigan had a valid and active pistol permit. The courthouse has signs posted at the front of the building: “The possession in this building of any firearm or any other weapon, object, or substance capable of causing disruption is not allowed.”

According to court records, McGuigan was arrested May 9, 2023, and is free on a $500 non-surety bond. The defense had filed a motion to dismiss the charge in the case — noting state police had revoked, then reinstated McGuigan’s pistol permit following the incident — but the judge denied the motion April 12.

Following McGuigan’s not guilty plea Thursday, Grogins continued the case to May 22, but the judge said she will meet with Burns and Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bepko the week before to discuss the matter.