"WELLESLEY - In this affluent suburb, where for many life revolves around a stellar public school system, a sentence containing the words 'loaded gun' and 'school' is guaranteed to turn heads."

"If that sentence also has the words 'Town Meeting member' and 'criminal charges,' it has the potential to unleash a full-blown scandal."

"Yesterday, such words caused a stir among parents, teachers, students, and police after a parent discovered a loaded .32-caliber pistol lodged in a seat in the Wellesley Middle School auditorium Monday."

"Police traced the semi-automatic firearm to Richard H. Forbes - an elected Town Meeting member, well-known attorney, and Wellesley's Republican Party chairman - who had apparently dropped the weapon from his pocket during a March 28 Town Meeting."

"Yesterday, police charged Forbes, 54, with carrying a firearm onto school grounds and failing to notify police that he lost his weapon, both of which are misdemeanors. They also suspended Forbes'gun license, and were arranging for him to surrender the other weapons in his home."

"Neither Forbes nor his attorney, Richard Egbert, returned calls yesterday, but friends and even Wellesley Deputy Police Chief William Brooks defended Forbes, saying he is 'an otherwise responsible citizen.'"

"Police said Forbes is one of 324 licensed gun owners in Wellesley, a town of 26,615 people where the average home sells for $514,000."

"'I don't even know if it's against the rules to bring a gun to Town Meeting, but who the heck would think you would need such a rule?' asked Laurence Shind, vice chairman of the Board of Selectmen."

"Although no one was hurt in the incident, and the weapon apparently never touched the hands of any of the school's 830 students, news of the misplaced weapon sparked a swift and angry rebuke from school officials."

"'How no child managed to find that gun between March 28 and now, I don't know, but we're very fortunate that a responsible adult was the one who did find it,' said School Superintendent Matthew King. 'It's outrageous that somebody would bring a gun into a school, it's appalling that someone would bring a gun to a Town Meeting, and even more outrageous that he would lose it for three weeks. ... We are extremely lucky that the gun was not discovered by some young kid. This could have ended tragically'" (Raphael Lewis, The Boston Globe, April 26, 2000).

According to Brooks, Forbes told officials that he was aware that he had misplaced the small, Derringer-like pistol sometime following the meeting, but 'he assumed it was in his house, and it would turn up.'"

"Vin Juliani, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he has known Forbes for years and believes that the crime he's been charged with, while serious, was unintentional. 'He obviously did not use good judgment, whether it was accidental or not, and the ramifications could have been devastating,' Juliani said. 'The question comes up, should that person continue to serve on Town Meeting? That is a question only he can answer'" (Raphael Lewis, The Boston Globe, April 26, 2000).