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Weapons charge against East Dundee police officer dropped

A Kane County prosecutor dropped a weapons charge against an East Dundee police officer Friday, because Thursday the state Supreme Court declared part of the weapons law unconstitutional.

Sgt. Michael Seyller was charged in April with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Carpentersville police said he had called them from his home to complain about a loud party in his neighborhood. When they arrived, they found him standing on a sidewalk carrying a loaded shotgun. Police reported he was intoxicated.

The law Seyller was accused of breaking said it was illegal to carry a loaded firearm or stun gun on your person or in your car, if you were not on your own land, in your own home or in your place of business.

The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in another case, the law violated the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Justice Robert Thomas wrote that the federal Supreme Court had determined that the 2nd Amendment guaranteed people “the right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” and that “central” to that right was “the inherent right of self-defense.” A federal appeals court had further determined that a person could carry a gun outside the home because “confrontations are not limited to the home.”

Seyller still faces an unrelated 2013 misdemeanor domestic battery charge. Friday, his attorney told Judge David Akemann that Seyller was applying for pretrial diversion on that charge.

Seyller also faces battery charges in Wisconsin in connection to a March bar fight in which he is accused of breaking a man’s nose and knocking out two teeth. He also faces a charge in Cook County of violating an order of protection.

He has been on leave from the police department for more than 10 months for unspecified off-duty conduct, and has applied for a disability pension. Seyller joined the department in 1999.

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