Former Greene County Sheriff's Maj. Eric Spicer was sentenced Monday to five years' probation after his December conviction on two of seven counts related to the acquisition and possession of a machine gun.
Spicer, 45, is barred from ever owning guns, was fined $1,800 and must complete 100 hours of community service.
U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett announced the sentencing, adding that Spicer's version of events was "equally plausible" to that of the prosecution's. Barrett said he believed that if Spicer had been asked, he would have returned the machine gun.
Spicer's attorneys said they plan to appeal the convictions.
"I'm not happy about the conviction for Eric, but Judge Barrett has seen what this really is about and his comments up there are telling," said one of the attorneys, John D. Smith. Spicer's prosecution was an overreach, Smith said, noting, "This is Eric falling through the (administrative or bureaucratic) cracks and me scratching my head why somebody like the ATF and the U.S. Attorney really care about somebody that falls through the cracks."
Spicer said it was fair to say he was prosecuted because he did not see eye to eye with Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer. Spicer has a wrongful termination case pending with the State of Ohio Personnel Board of Review.
"I wasn't given the due process that I was entitled to and I think there was a reason I wasn't given due process," Spicer said. "There would be witnesses called and there would be testimony. I think (Fischer) was trying to avoid that."
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 41 to 51 months. Barrett suggested that if the transfer of the machine gun from Greene County to Spicer's prospective job in Jackson Twp. had gone through, there wouldn't have been any charges.
Smith said Spicer's law enforcement career is over and this is a "life sentence" because his client must find something else to do.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Keller declined comment, but told told Barrett the government objected on the grounds that Barrett failed to articulate why he deviated so much from the non-binding guideline range of 27 to 33 months.
Keller argued that a police officer being convicted of a federal gun crime was unusual and wrote in a sentencing memo that Barrett should consider Spicer's "pattern of deception, dishonesty, fraud, unethical and otherwise criminal behavior."
During trial, Spicer admitted to signing Fischer's name on documents and using his own money to acquire a Heckler and Koch HK416 machine gun, but testified he did so with Fischer's knowledge and approval.
Spicer was found guilty of knowingly possessing a machine gun and of possessing a gun that was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. Spicer was found not guilty on five counts related to falsifications on documents to purchase and register the gun and misrepresenting himself as a police officer.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents seized the machine gun from Spicer's residence on March 28, 2014, about 22 days after Spicer was fired.
Before his March 6, 2014, firing, Spicer had been on administrative leave since a July 31, 2013, shootout in Yellow Springs that ended in the death of resident Paul E. Schenck Jr. Spicer was not named as the law enforcement officer whose bullet killed Schenck. That incident was not mentioned at trial.
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