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Former L.A. reporter sentenced for illegal weapon

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited August 2002 in General Discussion
Former L.A. helicopter reporter sentenced for illegal weapons




ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 30, 2002

LOS ANGELES - A former television helicopter reporter has been sentenced to two months in prison and four months house arrest for possession of illegally altered firearms.

U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird said Thursday she was convinced that Bob Pettee's crime was an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life and a lenient sentence was appropriate.

The judge also found that the former KNBC Channel 4 pilot did not deliberately commit a crime when he sold the guns to a friend for about $3,000.

"There is no evidence to show he knew automatic weapons were illegal," she said.

Baird also put off Pettee's surrender date until June 15, 2003, so he can spend the rest of the school year with his children in their home in Hawaii. The judge said she rarely grants such a request.

Pettee, 51, was convicted in April in federal court on two counts of unlawful transfer of a machine gun and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. The jury took more than two days to reach its decision.

Pettee took the stand during his trial and denied altering the weapons so they could be used as machine guns. He said he bought the 9mm Heckler and Koch pistol and an AR-15 rifle as collector's items about 10 years ago.

He decided to sell the two guns after he learned that KNBC was not going to renew his contract.

Pettee said his friend, Jeff Miller, took the weapons and promised to sell them to a licensed gun dealer he knew. The gun dealer then notified the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which set up a sting.

Miller was arrested when he accepted $5,000 for the weapons in a San Fernando Valley parking lot in August 2001. He testified during the trial that Pettee had told him the weapons were fully automatic and unregistered.

Pettee apologized to the judge during Thursday's hearing.



http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20020830-0213-ca-reportersentenced.html



"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

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