The Douglas County, Ore., District Attorney's office won't pursue a weapons charge against a Yuba City Sikh truck driver stopped along Interstate 5 on Sept. 1, according to an attorney familiar with the case. Amardeep Singh, an attorney with the Sikh Coalition who represented Gurpal Singh Gill, said efforts to educate the court and the district attorney's office about Sikhism paid off. "It was really a combined effort," said Singh, who pointed out that the Sikh Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Department of Justice helped resolve the case with the district attorney's office. Gill was cited last month by an officer along Interstate 5 near Roseburg, Ore., for carrying a concealed weapon for the religious knife he wore at his side. The officer confiscated the knife, called a Kirpan, a religious symbol for Sikhs that protected by the constitution. [more
