A Crystal Lake 18-year-old illegally carried around a loaded, defaced gun for months for his protection while “dealing drugs,” according to a judge who detained the young man in McHenry County jail pretrial.

Corey Nelson Jr., 18, is charged with possession, manufacturing and delivery of 348 grams of marijuana and 51 dosage units of Alprazolam, as well as the unlawful possession of two doses of MDMA and less than 15 grams of LSD and fentanyl, court documents show.

Nelson also is charged with unlawful possession of 31 rounds of 9mm ammunition, along with possession and aggravated unlawful use of a loaded Taurus 9mm pistol with a defaced serial number, without a valid Firearm’s Owners Identification Card, according to the criminal complaint filed in McHenry County court.

Following Nelson’s first court appearance, Judge Cynthia Lamb noted his age in her order detaining him and that he illegally possessed “a “loaded firearm ... at a time where he was dealing drugs” and he “carried it on him for months for his own safety.”

Neither GPS nor electronic home monitoring would keep him from selling drugs, the judge said. GPS would only keep him from certain places, while home monitoring would keep him home where police said they found “more drugs” and “a substantial sum of cash,” Lamb wrote.

Therefore, no conditions including restricting him to his home could “prevent the defendant from continuing drug sales, given the specific articulable fact that drugs and cash were located at the defendant’s residence and the defendant was in a vehicle at the time of these offenses,” Lamb said in the detention order.

Nelson’s attorney, Sam Amirante, declined to comment on the charges themselves but said he takes issue with the SAFE-T Act under which the judge detained Nelson. He said though the judge is fair, the act is unfair “to those who could possibly post bail.”

“It is supposed to be the ‘fairness act,’ but it’s anything but,” Amirante said, referring to the part of the SAFE-T Act known as the Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail as a means of getting out of jail while awaiting trial.

“An 18-year-old like [Nelson] at least would have had an opportunity to make bond, but under the new law you are either detained or released,” Amirante said. “It’s simply unfair to those who are able to make bond. Offenses are treated like capital cases with no chance to make bail, although the act states that every arrestee is presumed to be innocent and presumed to be released. In practice it is not that way.”