INDIANAPOLIS — A former Ohio police chief was sentenced in a machine gun trafficking case that involved two Indiana gun dealers. Dorian LaCourse, 66, will serve three years in prison and six months home detention after pleading guilty.
NOTE: The above video is from a previous report on the conspiracy.
“Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect our communities and uphold the law, and the public has a right to expect police powers are used for the public good,” said Zachary Myers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. “Instead, the defendant sold his badge to facilitate a criminal machine gun trafficking conspiracy. With heartbreaking regularity, we see the carnage that criminals can inflict on our communities with weapons of war. Today’s sentence demonstrates that officers who violate the public’s trust with utter disregard for the public’s safety will be held accountable.”
The firearms dealers, Johnathan Marcum, 34, of Laurel, Indiana, and Christopher Petty, 58, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, previously pled guilty in separate cases to participating in the same conspiracy.
The three exploited a machine gun exception to the federal ban on machine guns for police agencies and the military.
LaCourse claimed to want a machine gun demonstration from the dealers for the Village of Addyston Police Department. He claimed the department was interested in purchasing various types of machine guns — even military-grade weapons. Addyston has about 1,000 people and LaCourse is its only officer.
Marcum and Petty then sent the letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to get permission to order the weapons. The guns, which were supposed to be paid for by the police department, were actually purchased by Marcum and Petty. The gun dealers then sold the weapons for a profit — sometimes five or six times the purchase price.
In all, the three were responsible for purchasing or importing 200 fully automatic machine guns.
LaCourse received over $11,500 from the gun dealers for his role in the scheme.
Marcum and Petty have both pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and each faces up to 5 years in federal prison when sentenced.