Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511050009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Paul David Peterson, a member of the defunct Blue Ridge Hunt Club, had pleaded guilty to four felonies. But his cooperation with federal agents after his arrest and a repentant demeanor allowed him to walk out of court with probation.
Peterson will have to spend four months of his three years' probation under house arrest and perform 200 hours of community service.
Sentencing guidelines had called for a prison term of eight to 14 months, according to the judge, although Peterson's attorney said it was actually 10 to 16 months. But because Peterson cooperated with the government and testified against his co-defendants, U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser was able to sentence him below the guideline range.
In a statement he read to the court, Peterson said that because he was a political activist and devoted hunter his felony conviction has deprived him of two "most precious" rights - the right to vote and the right to own a gun.
Once active in Republican politics, Peterson said he was asked to resign from one group after his arrest. Now, he will not be able to show his 4-year-old and infant children how to hunt or handle a gun properly, he said. But he does plan to teach them "what can happen when you don't pick your associates carefully and fail to give the law the respect it deserves."
Peterson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate gun laws, selling a gun to a felon, backdating federal paperwork for a gun buyer and selling a gun "off paper."
A fellow hunt club member, Dennis Frith, also was sentenced Friday to three years' probation, four months of house arrest and a $5,000 fine for his part in "straw purchases" made from Peterson. He also must participate in a mental health treatment program.
Frith, 42, got his mother, brother and a friend to buy guns for him and register the guns in their names so Frith's name wouldn't show on ownership records.
Their convictions stem from involvement in a citizens' militia founded in the spring of 1994 in Pulaski. The militia's purpose was to prepare for a time of more-restrictive gun laws and perceived threats from the government against residents.
A staunch gun-rights advocate, Peterson offered to sell guns without the necessary paperwork to other members. The vice president of the club, Nelson Thompson, took him up on the offer.
Thompson had been working as an informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms before the club was started. He bought guns from Peterson illegally several times, using government money, and taped the transactions with a hidden recorder. He has been accused by other defendants of entrapment, a charge the government denies.
Peterson, 26, told the judge he sold a gun to a convicted felon "only after repeated urgings from Mr. Nelson Thompson," but that "ultimately, the responsibility is mine."
ATF Special Agent Scott Fairburn testified that after Peterson agreed to cooperate with the government, just days after his arrest in July 1994, he was forthcoming and honest about everything. After the hearing, Peterson said he decided to cooperate after his lawyer, Joe Painter, told him, "Tell them the truth, or they will hang you."
Peterson's information helped the government indict three more members of the club.
"I was impressed by your testimony today," Kiser told Peterson. "I initially came in [thinking you] were going to have to serve some jail time, based on the seriousness of your crime. But I don't think it will help you or the community at all for you to be incarcerated. That's not to say you don't deserve some punishment."
Since his arrest last year, Peterson has married and started working in Tennessee as a mechanic. The owner of the shop where Peterson works also testified about his good work habits.
After court, Peterson said he cooperated because "they had me on tape; they knew what I did. There was no point in lying."
On the tapes, Peterson talks about how he planned to "lose" all of his federal paperwork that described to whom he'd sold guns at his shop, Peterson Sporting Goods in Blacksburg:
"When I give my license up, if I do, I've already talked it over with some other friends of mine. I'm going to go out of town for the weekend, and I'm going to come back and my house will be broke into."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis did not ask for a specific sentence for Peterson but told the judge he was "the second most culpable person in the investigation" after hunt club founder James Roy Mullins. Wolthuis said the government was concerned because whenever the informant asked Peterson to break a law, he agreed. There was never "any limit to what he was willing to do."
Mullins was sentenced to five years in prison. The only other member of the club left to be sentenced is William Stump II.
by CNB