LA County Deputy pleads guilty to building short barreled rifle
Probably could have just gotten a department letter:
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has agreed to plead guilty to illegally building an assault rifle, marking the first plea agreement by one of 20 sheriff’s officials charged or indicted since December in an ongoing federal investigation of the Sheriff’s Department, authorities said Monday.
Richard White Piquette admitted in a document filed in federal court last week that he manufactured a Noveske Rifleworks N-4 .223-caliber rifle with an eight-inch barrel. Under federal law, the rifle’s barrel length should have been at least 16 inches, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Also, this:
Piquette’s attorney, Ronald Hedding, described his client as “a good man” who has family members in law enforcement. Hedding said he believed it was common practice for sheriff’s deputies to have weapons like the ones his client possessed.
I guess he thought the law didn’t apply to him. Gee, wonder why he’d have thought that?