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Lawyer calls charges against gun shop's owner
'politics at its worst'
By Alex Wood 1ournal Inquirer [ Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:06 pm
The lawyer representing a Iormer East Windsor gun shop`s owner and the business itselI both
convicted oI misdemeanors Ior regulatory violations that led to the shop`s loss oI its license to
sell guns has mounted a long, blistering attack on Iederal authorities in a sentencing
memorandum.
The lawyer representing Iormer shop owner David LaGuercia, 57, oI East Windsor, and his
business, Riverview Sales Inc., accused the government oI political motives in its action against
the business aIter a gun it had sold was used in the Newtown school massacre in December 2012.
But several days aIter Iiling the memo, lawyer Robert Y. Altchiler oI Westport withdrew it. The
deIense lawyer didn`t return messages seeking comment on his change oI course.
The amended memo he Iiled aIter getting a judge`s approval to withdraw the Iirst one is much less
conIrontational. It criticizes media coverage oI Riverview`s sale oI the gun used by shooter Adam
Lanza in the Newtown massacre, but the criticism oI the government`s handling to the case has
been eliminated.
The only real disagreement between the deIense and Iederal prosecutors is over how long a period
oI probation LaGuercia should receive when Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons sentences
him Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.
In his sentencing memo, prosecutor Robert M. Spector calls Ior LaGuercia to receive Iive years`
probation. The deIense lawyer had asked only Ior a 'short period oI probation, but the
prosecutor said he understood Irom discussions that the deIense request would be Ior three years`
probation.
The prosecutor`s rationale Ior a longer term oI probation is that it 'reIlects the oIIense conduct
and allows the court to enIorce LaGuercia`s agreement not to apply Ior a Iederal Iirearms license
or be a 'responsible party Ior another licensee Ior Iive years.
The prosecutor said in a Iootnote that he wouldn`t reply to the allegations in the original
sentencing memo because it had been withdrawn.
Inspectors Irom the Iederal Bureau oI Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives had
documented numerous violations oI Iederal reporting requirements and other regulations at
Riverview over a period oI years. A hearing on proposed revocation oI its license had been held
in the summer oI 2012.
The deIense lawyer argued in the withdrawn sentencing memo that ATF`s approach to the case
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changed radically aIter the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, in
which Lanza shot 20 Iirst-graders and six school staIIers.
Altchiler said the agency got a search warrant, when it could easily have obtained Riverview`s
records simply by asking Ior them, as it had in the past. And he accused the government oI
leaking word oI the raid to the media more than three hours beIore it happened, citing Twitter
Ieeds by a reporter Ior WFSB-TV3 in Rocky Hill.
'It seems that the government believed it had an opportunity to undo the staggeringly huge
volume oI negative press it had received in the last Iew years, with a high-proIile prosecution oI a
Iirearms dealer coupled with a concerted media attack related to Newtown, the deIense lawyer
wrote.
'This was politics at its worst, he added.
He also accused ATF oI Iailing to inIorm LaGuercia promptly that his employee Krystopher
DiBella oI SuIIield had sold ammunition to a known Ielon 'and had allegedly Iacilitated the
Ielonious use oI Iirearms by that Ielon more than once.
He says ATF agents knew those things in July 2011 but didn`t inIorm LaGuercia Ior a year, during
which DiBella sold some 3,000 weapons.
DiBella has since pleaded guilty to a Iederal Iirearms violation, Ior which he was Iined $250 and
placed on probation Ior three years.
LaGuercia`s lawyer also disclosed that there was a regulatory violation in the sale oI the gun used
in the Newtown massacre to Nancy Lanza, the mother oI shooter Adam Lanza. He called it a
'technical violation that 'endangered no one.