Abuses of the BATF

[fossten]

Abuses of the BATF
Harry & Teresa Lamplugh

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From cmoore@CapAccess.org Sun Dec 18 14:11:22 1994
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 1994 15:05:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Carol Moore
Subject: BATF Thugs (fwd)

THE LIVES OF Harry and Theresa Lamplugh were turned upside down on the morning of May 25, 1994. Early that day, 15-to-20 armed men and women burst into their rural Pennsylvania home. Under the threat of violence, the Lamplughs cooperated completely with the intruders as they opened safes, locks and cabinets. In spite of their compliance, however, Harry and Theresa were treated with contempt. Throughout the ordeal, a fully automatic machine gun was intermittently thrust in both their faces.

The Lamplughs watched in horror as the thugs literally trashed their home. Furniture was overturned or smashed and papers were scattered everywhere. Three pet cats were ruthlessly killed--one literally stomped to death. The gang ransacked their home for more than six hours. When they finally left, Harry and Theresa stood confused and angry in the midst of their demolished home.

The brutal and inhumane events that you have just read about are not fiction. They were taken from the testimony of Harry and Theresa Lamplugh. Only the intruders were not some violent street gang members or foreign terrorists; they were agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Why would two federal agencies send a small battalion of agents to terrorize this couple in the supposed safety of their home? What terrible crime did Harry and Theresa Lamplugh commit that prompted this brutal six-and-a half hour ordeal? Shockingly, there are no good answers to these questions.

Harry Lamplugh, however, is in the politically incorrect business of promoting gun shows. His organization, Borderline Gun Collectors Association, happens to be the largest gun show promoter in the Northeast. As anyone who has ever attended a gun show knows, there are more than firearms and accessories on display. A gun show is also a place where people of common interests meet to express their political views and share opinions. Not surprisingly, criticism of the BATF runs deep at such a forum. And it is no secret that the BATF spends considerable time and effort infiltrating these shows.

Since gun show infiltration is a massive undertaking that yields relatively small returns, the BATF has now honed in on a primary source, Harry Lamplugh. On May 23, 1994, the agencies obtained a search warrant authorizing both the BATF and the IRS to "search" the Lamplugh home. Included in the list of items to be seized were any firearms, ammunition, holsters, cleaning kits, gun cases and firearms accessories. The Lamplughs' attorney points out that the warrant failed to name even one specific item. "Such warrants are vague, overbroad and therefore unconstitutional," he said.

The agents also seized complete financial and business records of the Borderline Gun Collectors Association from 1988 to the present. This included all computer records and any other documents related to the sale and purchase of firearms. Obviously, the BATF was on some sort of "fishing expedition." But the most amazing aspect of the warrant is what was NOT on it. There was no reference to any crime by any person. The BATF appears to hold not only the Second Amendment in disdain, but the Fourth as well.

On Wednesday, May 25, 1994, the search warrant was executed. At about eight in the morning, Harry answered a knock on the front door and was instantly surrounded by agents. His wife was in the bathroom at the time. He had been sitting at the kitchen table in a pair of pajama bottoms, having his morning coffee. Unto this day I don't know exactly how many there were, but they had my house secured in seconds," Harry said. According to Lamplugh, there were a total of six cars full of agents. They were not dressed in any uniform, and only two had the identifying ATF vests on. All firearms were drawn. An M-P5 machine gun was stuck in Harry's face. They did not announce who they were or why they were there, and no search warrants were displayed. "When I asked if they had a search warrant, their first reply was 'shut the f___ up mother f___er; do you want more trouble than you already have?', with the machine gun stuck in my face." Harry said. "They then proceeded to tear my house apart."

The Lamplughs were not permitted to dress all day. "We couldn't even go to the bathroom without an armed guard, as if we were prisoners in our own home," says Mrs. Lamplugh. Then, like a slap in the face, the agents stopped everything to eat lunch. "They gave no thought to what we were going through. Some agents went out for pizza, and they had a little party. It was like a room full of kindergartners with no chaperon. They threw half-emptied soda cans, pizza and pizza boxes everywhere. To some people, maybe it sounds like we're complaining about a small thing, but this is our home and they trashed it."

The agents' reckless conduct at the "pizza party" characterized their behavior throughout the raid. "Because I have cancer, I usually have about 20 bottles of prescription drugs on top of my bureau. For some unknown reason, they thought it necessary to open the bottles and scatter the contents all over the floor. Consequently, two of our cats got into the medication and died horrible deaths."

The agents continued their aimless search. "Where's the machine gun" one of the agents asked. Finally, an indication they were looking for something in particular. "At first I didn't know what he meant," Harry said. "Then I recalled that I once owned a Vietnam commemorative Thompson, inlaid in 22 karat gold, but that was a semi-automatic. One of the agents then responded, 'That must be what they're talking about.'" The agents were apparently looking for something that wasn't even there, or illegal to possess."

However, they were very thorough in sifting through what was there. But for what reason did the agents take marriage and birth certificates, school records, insurance information, vehicle registrations and titles? Harry points out that "they were so thorough that for about two weeks we would have had a hard time proving who we were. They took all of our contacts with newspapers (Over 600), all friends and family phone numbers, and even my medical records." There were 61 firearms and assorted ammo seized in the raid, valued at over $15,000. The agents took about 70,000 names and addresses of exhibitors and also gun show contracts through the year 2000. A stack of mail was opened, read and also confiscated.

Finally, at about three o'clock, the wrecking crew finished their destruction. In one final unconscionable act, female agent Donna Slusser deliberately stomped to death a cherished Manx kitten, and kicked it under a tree.

The affidavit in support of the warrant was made by BATF special agent Scott Endy. For reasons unknown to the Lamplughs, the affidavits were sealed by a local federal judge. An Assistant United States Attorney was asked by the Lamplughs' attorney to unseal the document, but he has steadfastly refused to do so.

The persecution Harry and Theresa have endured has been extremely harsh. At no time was this peaceful couple informed of any violation of the law, and to this day no charges have been brought against the Lamplughs. Yet, the BATF has refused to return any property, even medical records and other personal documents and possessions.

The actions of the men and women who entered the Lamplughs' home must not be ignored or forgotten. The Lamplughs are victims, not suspects, in this matter, and this is but one of the many examples of the BATF's abuse of its power through the years. This government brutality must be stopped.

 

[Calabrio]

Isn't stomping a kitten to death going a little too far with the story?
- there's some critical piece of information missing from this very one side perspective of things.

http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/opinions/vanaskie/00v1470.pdf

Since this has happened, Harry has since died.

Apparently, Harry wasn't permitted to have a federal fire arms license due to a previous felonies he'd been convicted of. The government searched Harry and his son's homes because they suspected him of illegally having and dealing in fire arms.

This was May 25, 1994. The search did uncover firearms and ammunition appraised at $15k.

"On December 14, 1998, a jury acquitted Harry and Theresa Lamplugh of conspiring to engage in the business of dealing in firearms without a license, but found Harry Lamplugh guilty, inter alia, of engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license and possession of firearms after having been convicted of a felony. On June 15, 1999, Harry Lamplugh passed away."

First thing to note- these stories are all from the mid-Nineties. I haven't heard a run these stories since them. I assume Fossten is posting them as reminder of what happens when Democrats run the Executive and Legislative branches.

Here's another story printed about that same time.

IS WACO RAID TIP OF THE ICEBERG?
BY CHARLES OLIVER
http://www.investors.com/editorial/...cid=1501&status=article&id=163408&secure=8600
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 7/19/1995

This probably wasn't how Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Director John Magaw wanted to start his week.
The Washington Times reported that ATF agents had set up a whites-only 'Good Ol' Boys Roundup' in Tennessee.At that picnic, agents could buy T-shirts with Martin Luther King's face on a target. ':q:q:q:q:q:q-hunting licenses' and other offensive items were also sold there, the Times reported.
This as the agency prepares for a bias suit brought by 15 black agents.The story also broke just 10 days before today's hearing in the House of Representatives on the fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, two years ago.

This hearing is sure to remind people of ATF's role in that tragedy.
For years, gun owners have accused ATF of abuse and misconduct.
Most famously, a National Rifle Association fund-raising letter compared ATF to Nazis. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne La Pierre later apologized for the letter.

ATF, for its part, says the charges are overblown.
But attacks on ATF are growing -and not just from the NRA.
Critics on both the right and the left say the basic problem isn't ATF. It's a government that has failed to oversee its law-enforcement arms, they say.
These foes say the trend of granting new powers to federal agents must be stopped. Instead, they say, the government needs to keep a closer eye on all agencies, not just ATF.

ATF is a 4,200-person unit that enforces the nation's gun laws. It is part of the Treasury Department and will spend $ 385 million this year.
First called the Department of Prohibition, ATF was spun off from the IRS in 1972.

There are two main parts to ATF -regulatory and enforcement.
'The regulatory division does a pretty decent job,' said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
'But the enforcement division seems to have quite a few cowboys,' he said. 'It's the subject of most of the complaints we hear.'
For more than 20 years, gun owners' groups have complained about ATF abuses.

In recent years, other civil liberties groups, such as the ACLU, have echoed their claims.

Some examples:
In 1982, a Senate panel looked at ATF and found that three- fourths of ATF cases dealt with basically law-abiding people who committed technical violations of gun laws.
In 1992, ATF went after gun collector Louis Katona. They said he forged the local police chief's signature on special gun permits, which he used to buy machine guns and other special guns.
Katona says that when ATF agents came to his house to seize the guns, they were abusive and damaged his guns.
He says they shoved his wife, who was pregnant, against a wall. A few days later, he says, doctors found problems with the pregnancy and helped speed up a developing miscarriage.
ATF denies these charges.

Reports in both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times questioned whether ATF agents shoved Mrs.Katona. But when Katona's case went to court, the judge ordered that Katona be found not guilty, asking prosecutors on the record, 'Where's the beef?'

In 1994, ATF raided the home of gun-show promoter Harry Lamplugh. He says agents waved weapons in his and his wife's faces. Lamplugh claims ATF agents damaged his property, took medical files, and seized guns and cash.
He also says they stomped one of their cats to death.ATF denies his charges of brutality but admits it seized $ 18,000 in property from Lamplugh for forfeiture. Lamplugh was never charged with a crime.

Of course, Waco has become a rallying point for foes of the ATF.
In 1993, ATF raided the Branch Davidian compound. They claimed the group had illegally changed semiautomatic guns to fully automatic ones.
FBI's Waco Role

The raid left four agents dead and 20 wounded.It led to a 51-day siege that ended with a fire that killed 85 people.

Others must share blame for what happened at Waco.

ATF and Branch Davidians each say the other fired first in the raid. Then the FBI took over. They were the ones who used tanks to teargas the compound. The government says the Davidians set the fire that killed them.

But a Treasury report issued soon after the siege ended took aim at ATF. It said the agency did not look at safer ways to arrest David Koresh and opted for a plan based on surprise. ATF lost that element of surprise, knew that it had, and yet went ahead with the raid. The report said that ATF then lied to cover its mistakes.

In October 1993, two supervisors were suspended for their part in the raid. But their jobs were quietly restored, with full back pay, in December of that year.

ATF defends itself by noting that it has had nearly 50,000 cases, involving 80,000 suspects, in the past 10 years. It has served nearly 10,000 search warrants in that time.

That has resulted in 230 suits against it for alleged breaches of the Constitution. It says about half those suits have been resolved, all in its favor.

Critics say these numbers don't tell the real story.
Unless they suffer physical or financial harm, people often think twice before suing law enforcement.

'They just don't think it's worth the time and money,' said David Kopel of the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank.
Plus, winning such cases is hard.

One usually must prove not only that agents breached one's rights but that they intended to do so.
ATF isn't the only federal law-enforcement agency with a record of abuse.
Other Abuses

Fifty-three U.S.agencies can carry guns and make arrests. One of every 10 police officers is a federal agent.

The Justice Department says the Immigration and Naturalization Service racks up the most complaints. The Bureau of Indian Affairs ranks second.
Again, some say that these figures don't tell the whole story. Most abuses don't result in civil-rights complaints.

'My guess is that when it comes to abuse of authority, the IRS is far and away at the top of the list. And when it comes to violent acts, the DEA is probably at the top of the list, followed by ATF,' Kopel said.
So why the focus on ATF?

'ATF is unique. It has a well-funded opponent (the NRA). There is no National Drug Association watching the DEA and publicizing its abuses,' said Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a nonpartisan educational institute in Washington.

Last year, 10 groups wrote President Clinton asking him to name a panel to look at federal law enforcement. They pointed to problems such as abuse of deadly force and paramilitary tactics, physical and verbal abuse, and questionable informants.

The groups included the NRA, the ACLU, the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

A Drug Lab?
'People were shocked by Waco, but more and more, that's the way federal law enforcement, not just ATF, is working,' Sterling said.
House Republicans may want to use today's hearing to score points against the White House. But critics say federal law enforcement had problems long before Clinton took office.

'The militarization of law enforcement began under Ronald Reagan. His administration started all of the 'war on drugs' rhetoric. His administration pushed through a change in the Posse Comitatus Act to allow the military to help go after drug dealers,' Kopel said. Posse Comitatus is a century- old law that bans using the military for law enforcement.
ATF and the FBI had both military equipment and training in their raid at Waco.

They got this help by claiming there was a drug lab in the compound.Since then, ABC News and others have questioned these claims.
'The problems really escalated under George Bush. Probably the worst you could say about Clinton is that things haven't gotten any better,' Kopel said.
What can be done to stop these types of abuse?

Oversight Board
Some say there should be a board to review complaints against federal agents. It would work like citizens' review boards that oversee many big-city police.

'Most Western nations have such a commission for their national police forces. It's considered a vital part of the democratic process,' said Mark Gissiner of the International Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.
While this concept has wide support, some say that it will not be enough to rein in rogue agents.

They say that as long as the federal government has so much power there will be abuse. They say the government should scale back its role in law enforcement.Local police should do more, they say.

But that runs against the trend in both parties to expand Washington's police role.

This year, one or both houses of Congress have approved bills:
* Greatly expanding the number of federal crimes.
* Easing search and seizure protections.
* Increasing the military's role in law enforcement.
While conservative Republicans have knocked the ATF, they haven't been as tough on other agencies.
Earlier this year, the House passed a bill weakening the rule that keeps illegally seized evidence out of trial.
But the bill did not let ATF or the IRS use these new looser rules.
Still, critics say that focusing on one or two agencies will not work.
'Increasingly we see that investigations and raids are being conducted by more than one agency: ATF and the FBI, Customs and the DEA, the DEA and the Forest Service,' Gottlieb said.

 

[fossten]

The reason I'm posting this is relevant to what's happening to conservatives and Christians in this country. The government is targeting us, and the ATF Gestapo is a good example of how we can lose our freedom in a heartbeat.

The kitten was stomped to death. There are multiple accounts documenting the story, and the writer of the email contacted Theresa Lamplugh for confirmation.

I had already read the .pdf file you linked to. It's a technical civil procedure document citing a motion to dismiss by Theresa Lamplugh, and it's not really relevant to the facts of the story.

By the way, whenever you think about ATF agents testifying that they didn't do what they were accused of doing, read this:

Institutional Perjury at the BATF

ON OCTOBER 18,1995, Thomas A. Busey, then Chief of the National Firearms Act Branch of the BATF (the official custodian of the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record), made a videotaped training presentation to BATF headquarters personnel during a weekly "Roll Call" training session. "Roll Call" training is weekly or periodic in-house training for BATF officials-a routine show-and-tell whereby bureaucrats learn about each other's duties and functions.

Busey's presentation was anything but normal, routine or customary. In describing the NFR&TR, the official national registry of registered Title II firearms (machine guns, short-barrelled rifles and shotguns, destructive devices, etc.), Busey made the startling revelation that officials under his supervision routinely perjure themselves when testifying in court about the accuracy of the NFR&TR.

Every prosecution and forfeiture action brought by the United States and involving an allegedly unregistered NFA firearm requires testimony under oath by a duly authorized custodian of the NFR&TR that after a diligent search of the official records of which he/she is custodian, no record of the registration of the firearm in question was found (or was found but showed a different registrant than the person being prosecuted). An alternative method of proving the same facts is by admission into evidence of a certified copy under official Treasury Department seal of a similar written declaration by the custodian. This is a critical element of the government's proof and, according to Busey, occurred 880 times in 1995 alone (presumably Fiscal Year 1995).

Busey began his Roll Call presentation by acknowledging "Our first and main responsibility is to make accurate entries and to maintain accuracy of the NFRTR...... Moments later Busey makes the astonishing statement that ". . . when we testify in court, we testify that the data base is 100 percent accurate. Mat's what we testify to, and we will always testify to that. As you probably well know, that may not be 100 percent true."

Busey then goes on for several minutes describing the types of errors which creep into the NFR&TR and then repeats his damning admission: "So the information on the 728,000 weapons that are in the data base has to be 100 percent accurate. Like I told you before, we testify in court and, of course, our certifications testify to that, too, when we're not physically there to testify, that we are 100 percent accurate." How bad was the error rate in the NFR&TR? Busey again:

". . , when I first came in a year ago, our error rate was between 49 and 50 percent, so you can imagine what the accuracy of the NFRTR could be, if your error rate's 49 to 50 percent."

Does anyone recall the phrase "Hey, close enough for government work"? Consider this matter in its starkest terms: A senior BATF official lecturing other senior BATF officials at BATF national headquarters in Washington, DC, declares openly and without apparent embarrassment or hesitation that BATF officers testifying under oath in federal (and state) courts have routinely perjured themselves about the accuracy of official government records in order to send gun-owning citizens to prison and/or deprive them of their property. just who then is the criminal in these cases?

All this was too brazen for even some BATF officials to stomach. Acting on tips from several BATF officials (there are honest men and women in government, even in BATF), the Greensboro, North Carolina, gun rights lawyer and former Department of justice prosecutor James H. Jeffries, III, promptly filed a Freedom of Information Act request precisely describing the Busey tape. The first reaction was predictable. After reviewing the damning tape, BATF officials discussed whether they could get away with destroying it. Wiser heads prevailed, however. Obviously any outsider who knew of the tape would probably also know of its destruction. (Or, perhaps all the official shredders were on loan to the White House.)

After much tooing and froing with a dismayed Department of justice, a transcript of the Busey tape was produced for Jeffries in February 1996. The Department of justice was dismayed because the Busey tape was clearly Brady material. Under the Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, the government is required in all criminal prosecutions to provide the defense, in advance of trial, with any evidence tending to show the defendant's innocence. Failure to do so can result in dismissal of an indictment, reversal of a conviction, or other sanctions, Willful failure to produce Brady material can constitute contempt of court, professional misconduct, or even a crime.

The Busey tape was clearly exculpatory and clearly implicated every National Firearms Act prosecution and forfeiture in living memory. Worse yet, Busey was only the tip of the iceberg. When the smoke had cleared, the Department of Justice learned that the NFR&TR inaccuracy problem had been the subject of internal BATF discussion since at least 1979. BATF's files were replete with minutes of meetings, statistical studies, memoranda, correspondence, etc., admitting the problem. The only thing missing was any attempt to correct the problem, or to reveal it to anyone outside the agency.

The Justice Department has now commenced the painful chore of advising every NFA defendant in the country of the situation. It did this with a recent mass mailing by U.S. Attorneys to defense lawyers and defendants of relevant BATF documents, including the Busey transcript.

The direct consequences of this institutional perjury are just now beginning to occur. In Norfolk, Virginia, on May 21, United States District judge John A. MacKenzie, after reviewing the Busey transcript, promptly dismissed five counts of an indictment charging John D. LeaSure with possession of machine guns not registered to him. LeaSure, a Class 11 NFA manufacturer, had received BATF transfer approval for the five guns, but then decided to void the transfers and keep the guns. He promptly faxed the voided Form 3s to the NFA branch.

BATF subsequently raided LeaSure and charged him with illegally possessing guns which, according to the NFR&TR, were registered to someone else. The government ignored the fact that on the date LeaSure said he voided the transfers there was a 21-minute call on his toll records from his fax number to the NFA Branch's fax number-at a time when he could have had no idea he would later be prosecuted for Continuing to possess the guns. Rather, the prosecution produced NFA Branch specialist Gary Schaible to testify as custodian of the NFR&TR that the government's official records did not show any voided transfers and therefore LeaSure was in illegal possession of the guns.

In essence, Schaible was testifying that "We can't find an official record and therefore the defendant is guilty." What we now know is that Schaible should have testified that "We can't find half our records-even when we know they're there-and therefore we're not sure if anyone is guilty.'

The government's case was not aided when Schaible was forced to admit on cross-examination that two NFA Branch examiners were recently transferred because they had been caught shredding NFA registration documents in order to avoid having to work on them. Note that they were "transferred." Not fired. Not prosecuted. Merely transferred. Just who IS the criminal in these cases!

It is too early to predict how many new trials, appeals and habeas corpus actions will result from this affair, Also of significance is the number of convicted felons presently under legal disabilities from flawed convictions and what effect the Busey disclosures will have on their situation.

The indirect consequences of BATF's conduct will not be so readily apparent but are potentially devastating. All across the country Assistant United States Attorneys, United States District judges, and other federal and local law enforcement officials are going to learn what GOA and most defense lawyers and gun dealers have known for years and what the aftermath of Waco and Ruby Ridge starkly illustrated: BATF officers and agents lie, dissemble and cover up on an institutional basis. These are not aberrations; they are an institutional ethic, an organizational way of life. Just who IS the criminal in these cases?
---------------
Lawyers and defendants in NFA cases who have not received the "Busey" package from the United States Attorney should be making prompt demands-both for the package and for an explanation of why it was not produced in a timely fashion. Attorney Jim Jeffries, a GOA life member, has agreed to act as an informal clearing house for these matters. Those lawyers with questions, problems, or new information involving the Busey phenomenon, or its continuing aftermath, are invited to contact him at 910-282-6024.