But she committed no crime.
If Lisa Marok complied, the judge would allow her husband to leave the courtroom on probation.
The judge flatly stated, “You have a choice, your husband or your guns.”
In a moment of comedic brilliance, Marok replied, “Can I have a minute?” Needless to say, Ralph Marok, 60, left the courtroom and went home.
She was joking, of course, and her husband became a free man. Still, she was presented with an illogical choice that ran afoul of the Constitution as she had committed no crime but was still being punished.
Her husband was working for the Department of Transportation years ago when he fell off the back of a truck. According to his son, Thomas Marok, his father became addicted to pain pills and eventually turned to the streets when they became more difficult to acquire.
On April 6, 2022, the situation exploded. Charlotte County sheriff’s deputies responded to a “shots fired” call at the Marok residence. On arrival they found that a home across the street was hit by gunfire, along with a car parked there.
No one was injured but 19 shell casings were found of .40 and .45 caliber rounds. Three handguns were also located matching the calibers of the shots fired. Marok told deputies that people were trying to kill his family. When examined at Fawcett Memorial Hospital, medical personnel reportedly found he had numerous narcotics, including cocaine, in his system.
All firearms were removed from the Marok residence, not just the three apparently involved in the shooting. Five belonged to Lisa Marok and three to his son.
In the courtroom last week, the judge informed Lisa Marok that, if she accepted the plea deal, she “couldn’t ever own a gun again — ever in my life,” she recalled. “He said I couldn’t carry one for protection anymore. He took away all of my Second Amendment rights.”
The family’s firearms remain with the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. Lisa Marok said afterward, “I don’t want my husband to go to prison. I think this is wrong. I am a law-abiding citizen.”
Something about this situation just doesn’t sit right. It seems extremely un-American for a person to be stripped of their constitutional rights without committing a crime. Lisa Marok, however, made the only choice she could make and is paying the price for the actions of another.
