by Lee Williams
The federal government’s case towards Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was led by two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, however their fundamental witness grew to become the true cause why a jury discovered Adamiak responsible, and a federal decide sentenced him to twenty years in jail.
To be clear, Adamiak was railroaded by Jeffrey R. Bodell, who works out of a small ATF workplace in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
In keeping with paperwork obtained by the Second Modification Basis, Bodell is an ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer, or FEO, who has labored in ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Expertise Division since he was employed in November 2020.
When he took the stand to testify falsely about what he did to Adamiak’s firearms, Bodell had been an ATF worker for lower than two years.
Most damning was the truth that this was the primary time Bodell had ever testified at any trial.
Bodell’s inexperience was not missed by Adamiak’s protection lawyer, Larry Woodward, in accordance with a transcript of the trial:
MR. WOODWARD: Good morning, sir. My identify is Larry Woodward and I characterize Mr. Adamiak. My query is have you ever ever testified as a witness, skilled witness earlier than?
THE WITNESS (Bodell): I’ve not. That is my first time.
MR. WOODWARD: That is your first time?
THE WITNESS (Bodell): Sure, sir.
MR. WOODWARD: Okay. Thanks.
Background
In keeping with his Curriculum Vitae, in December 2011 Bodell earned a Bachelor of Science in Legal Justice from Shippensburg College, which is positioned in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, faculty officers didn’t return calls searching for to confirm his diploma.
Bodell additionally states he obtained a diploma from a “Grasp Gunsmithing Program” in Might 2017 on the Pennsylvania Gunsmith Faculty, which is positioned in Pittsburgh. Nonetheless, faculty officers didn’t return calls searching for verification.
After incomes his gunsmithing diploma, Bodell’s CV reveals he labored at three gun retailers however for brief durations of time.
He claims to have labored for Lebo’s Gunsmithing in Shippensburg for 10 months, Legendary Arms Works in Harrisburg for 16 months, after which he ran his personal gun store referred to as Bodell Customized, LLC, for 17 months in Shippensburg. After closing his personal gun store, Bodell went to work for the ATF.
In keeping with a transcript from Adamiak’s trial, Bodell described his profession somewhat shortly.
“I attended Pennsylvania Gunsmith Faculty the place I, upon commencement I labored for a small gunsmithing store for good, a yr and a half, conducting basic gunsmithing. After that I labored for a semi-custom manufacturing bolt-action rifle firm making rifles for a yr and a half. After which after that I had my very own gunsmithing enterprise based mostly out of my home,” the excerpt from the trial states.
It needs to be famous that Bodell’s six-page Curriculum Vitae is loaded with lengthy lists of the firearms on which he was skilled, however it is usually chock-full of nonessential info, together with laws he has studied, historic info he obtained, museums he has toured, and commerce reveals he attended.
Bodell didn’t reply to calls or messages left on his cellphone or together with his employer. No picture of Bodell could possibly be discovered.
Issues
Adamiak, who’s now 31, was only a 28-year-old E-6 within the U.S. Navy previous to his arrest. He loved firearms and ran a non-public web site that bought gun elements—not weapons. He was at all times extraordinarily cautious about what he bought. In spite of everything, he needed to defend his naval profession, which was doing extraordinarily effectively.
Adamiak was unprepared for Bodell or his unbelievable deceptions, which have turn out to be virtually legendary. Bodell really turned toys into firearms and authorized semi-autos into machineguns.
Bodell inserted an actual STEN motion and an actual STEN barrel into Adamiak’s toy STEN submachinegun and received it to fireside one spherical, although the toy’s receiver wouldn’t settle for an actual STEN journal. Bodell really labeled the toy, that are very fashionable, as a machinegun.
Bodell fired 5 of Adamiak’s very costly and very collectible authorized semi-autos, which fireplace from an open bolt. All of the ATF technician may obtain was semi-auto fireplace, however that didn’t cease him. He labeled all 5 extremely wanted firearms as machineguns.
Bodell dominated that a number of receivers that had been reduce in half have been really machineguns. The identical elements are nonetheless legally bought on-line and don’t require an FFL or any paperwork.
RPGs
The worst factor Bodell advised the courtroom have been his misconceptions about two inert RPGs.
Bodell took the inert rocket launchers to the ATF’s lab and added lacking fire-control parts together with a firing pin from a useful RPG from the ATF’s assortment. The agent additionally added a sub-caliber coaching system that resembles a warhead, which might fireplace 7.62x39mm rounds by itself with out even loading it into an RPG.
“He fired a 7.62x39mm rifle cartridge via it using the sub-caliber coaching system, which is a standalone rifle that may be fired independently by itself,” Adamiak stated final week.
Bodell falsely testified that the lacking elements didn’t matter, legally.
“It doesn’t matter whether or not it fires or not, and if it’s lacking some part elements, it wouldn’t be related to the classification of a harmful system,” Bodell advised the courtroom, which isn’t what the statute or case regulation state.
Bodell even made a video of him and an assistant firing one rifle spherical from Adamiak’s closely transformed RPG.
“An RPG is a quite simple and crude system,” Adamiak stated. “Taking a chunk of metallic pipe and hose clamping a hearth management mechanism to it could successfully duplicate what Bodell did in his testing.”
Takeaways
As a result of the ATF screwed up, kicked down Adamiak’s door after which created a mess of faux fees, it proves they might somewhat prosecute an harmless man and pressure him to serve twenty years behind bars than admit the reality—that their particular brokers don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. That’s why the ATF was compelled to name of their ringer, Bodell, to assist make their pretend case.
As soon as the ATF turned the case over to Bodell, Adamiak’s innocence not mattered. Bodell would break all the principles.
All of what Bodell insisted have been unlawful gadgets are nonetheless bought legally on-line: Inert RPGs, toy STENs, submachinegun receivers and particularly open-bolt semi-autos. The RPGs, toy STENs and submachinegun receivers don’t require any paperwork to buy.
Bodell shouldn’t be alone. His opinions, and people of his colleagues, different Firearm Enforcement Officers, are fed to them by senior ATF officers. That’s the reason Adamiak obtained such a stiff two-decade sentence, as a result of these FEOs are paid liars. In lots of instances, it’s like they’re the half-educated main the blind.
Regardless of Bodell’s and the ATF’s untruths, an anti-gun decide crippled Adamiak’s protection. Certainly one of his protection specialists, former ATF senior official Daniel G. O’Kelly, wasn’t even allowed to testify a lot regardless of his huge data.
O’Kelly joined the ATF as a Particular Agent in 1988 after serving 10 years as a police officer. He grew to become a legend throughout the company, together with a stint because the lead teacher of Firearm Expertise on workers on the ATF Nationwide Academy. O’Kelly has taught internationally and co-wrote this system establishing the Licensed Firearm Specialist for the ATF, whereas he was on the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level.
After prolonged testimony from each Bodell and O’Kelly on one problem, the decide sided with O’Kelly, and denied the prosecutors’ try to penalize Adamiak for 977 further “machineguns,” which have been simply flat items of metallic. The extra 10 years prosecutors needed for the flats weren’t added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence.
O’Kelly, and Adamiak, needs he may have testified concerning the different false claims prosecutors made within the case. Although his testimony was very restricted by the courtroom, O’Kelly nonetheless needs Adamiak effectively.
“The ATF teaches its brokers the minimal about weapons. In the event that they encounter one thing they don’t perceive, they’re purported to ask the (Firearms Enforcement Officer), however the reply they get is a directed response from the administration. These FEOs usually are not allowed to provide their opinions,” O’Kelly stated Thursday afternoon. “The FEO’s testimony is a substance of the opinion that was compelled by official ATF opinion on any firearm problem. That official opinion relies upon what an anti-gun administration has advised them is needs to be. I’ve confirmed that, by way of what the ATF has suffered on numerous points.”
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