(Reuters) – New York Knicks guard Raymond Felton was arrested on gun possession charges on Tuesday after his wife’s divorce attorney took a weapon that was allegedly his to a local police station, authorities said.
Felton, 29, was not registered to have the gun in New York City and was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and with criminal possession of a firearm, authorities said.
The professional basketball player turned himself in to face the charges early on Tuesday and appeared at a late-afternoon hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court before Judge Diane Boyar, who set bail at $25,000.
Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, Felton left the courthouse in downtown Manhattan after the hearing without making any comment. He was driven away in a black Cadillac Escalade.
A police source said the semi-automatic large-capacity pistol, loaded with about 18 bullets, was taken to a police station near the couple’s home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side late Monday by an attorney representing the player’s wife, Ariane Raymondo-Felton, 26, who filed for divorce last week.
The couple was married in 2012, and she is a law student.
Felton kept the gun at his home, according to the criminal complaint.
In court, the judge issued a six-month order of protection, telling Felton to have no contact with a person identified only as the complainant, presumed to be his estranged wife.
Felton’s attorney James Walden told the judge his client had no intention of getting in contact with her.
The Knicks lost at home to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday after a game-winning shot at the buzzer by Dirk Nowitzki.
Felton was ordered to return to court on June 2.
If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to seven years on the most serious charge, the third-degree possession charge.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Karen Brooks,Bernadette Baum and Gunna Dickson)