Why ATF folded in Friesen case

August 30, 10:21 AMGun Rights ExaminerDavid Codrea

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"That $25 fine is as good as ours, boys!" (ATF photo)

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It seemed the government had Doug Friesen nailed.

Who? What?

Per Jerry Bohnen, NewsRadio 1000 KTOK, on The McCarville Report Online:

A federal grand jury has returned indictments of lying and illegally possessing an unregistered submachine gun against Oklahoma City attorney Doug Friesen...

Five separate counts were returned by the federal grand jury.

If Friesen is convicted, he could face up to 5 years on the charge of lying to the ATF agents and ten years for knowingly possessing an unregistered machinegun.

Open and shut case, right? What could go wrong?

From Joshua Prince:

In a major victory for those of us arguing that the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) is insufficient for criminal proceedings, Dr. Fritz Scheuren, "the" statistician in the United States (possibly the world), today informed the 10th District Court that the NFRTR is insufficient for criminal proceedings. While no decision has been rendered in the case of US v. Larry Douglas Friesen, this is a MAJOR defeat for the BATFE, who, over the years, has argued that although the NFRTR is flawed, it still can be used in criminal proceedings...

If the US loses this case, there is some speculation on whether the BATFE will seek to appeal the decision because an appellate ruling that the NFRTR is insufficient would have disastrous consequences for the BATFE and the NFRTR. It is this author's opinion that the BATFE would likely not appeal so to protect the integrity of the NFRTR in other court proceedings.

So what happened? ATF went for it. And Friesen ultimately made a guilty plea.

What? The headline says "ATF folded." What gives?

This:

In making a tactical decision to end the litigation, Mr. Friesen agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor of failing to keep accurate records as an FFL... The maximum penalty that could have been imposed was 1 year incarceration and/or a fine of not more than $100,000, as well as a special mandatory assessment of $25.00, and a term of supervised release of one year. Moreover, the parties agreed to a 2 level downward adjustment of the Sentencing Guidelines. Furthermore, and quite disconcerting, is the fact that Mr. Friesen was forced, in accepting this plea agreement, to abandon his Sten Mark III. Nevertheless, on July 28, 2009, the Court sentenced Mr. Friesen to 2 years of probation, a $25 fine, but all of his guns, excluding his Sten, were returned to him.

Probation, loss of a gun and a $25 fine? And a misdemeanor instead of multiple felonies? Why would ATF settle for that when they apparently had him slam-dunked for serious time at Club Fed?

Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars has some insights:

The one thing the ATF cannot afford to look like is ineffectual, foolish and downright stupid. Yet that's exactly the fate that they deliberately tempted in this case and got caught. Why? Because in the end this was about protecting their secret documents. These documents, no matter what spin they put on them, are in the final analysis just rules, regulations, policies and testing procedures that ought to be in the public domain. They refuse to release tham because then they couldn't change the rules to suit themselves in whatever particular case they're running...

[W]hen poor old Jimmy Vann just couldn't find his "lost" documents, I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. He used every excuse except the dog ate his homework. When they realized they would have to drop the case or reveal some of their precious documents, they cockroached, headed for the base boards and Friesen walked on a misdeamenor after they'd spent at least a million dollars and years of work trying to put him in federal prison with real criminals like MS-13.

Attorney David T. Hardy sums it up nicely:

The courtroom equivalent of "the dog ate my homework. Five times."...

The prosecutor is trying to dodge and weave on why certain important documents were not disclosed to the defense, despite a court order, and neither the judge nor the defense attorney is giving him an inch of slack.

A correspondent tells Vanderboegh more information is on the way:

You don't have the half of it in this case...

[O]ther documents pertinent to the NFRTR (a major aspect of the Friesen case) have not been released yet. Mr. Friesen has them and is getting ready to send them out.

Stay tuned.