Man Acquitted In 'Tommy Gun' Trial
POSTED: 5:43 pm PDT April 17, 2008
UPDATED: 5:48 pm PDT April 17, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- A federal jury on Thursday acquitted a Nevada man charged with attempting to smuggle parts of a World War II-era "Tommy Gun" inside a Porsche sports car he imported from Germany to the Port of Long Beach.
After a three-day trial and more than two hours of deliberations, Peter Walter Scharf, 43, of Henderson, Nev., was found not guilty of one count of importation of a machine gun and another count of smuggling.
Prosecutors said Scharf -- an Austria-born naturalized U.S. citizen -- concealed three pieces of the submachine gun in the spare tire compartment of his Porsche 911 Turbo and then shipped the car from Bremerhaven, Germany, to Long Beach.
The gun parts found in the car were wrapped in a blue cloth and included the receiver and barrel, the bolt assembly and the trigger assembly of a .45- caliber Thompson submachine gun, prosecutors said.
The Tommy Gun was popular with law enforcement personnel and gangsters during the 1920s and 1930s and played a crucial role in World War II.
On Oct. 12, 2007, Customs and Border Patrol officers inspected Scharf's Porsche and discovered the gun parts, prosecutors said.
Federal agents arrested Scharf, who is not a licensed gun dealer, on Nov. 27.
But Kiya Kato, Scharf's attorney, said after Thursday's verdicts that her client never intended to smuggle or import the gun.
She also said the jury's quick not-guilty verdicts said to the prosecution: "Not only did you not prove your case, but we think he's innocent."
The case's lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Levin, had no comment after Thursday's verdicts.
Kato said that Scharf -- who was preparing to move back to the United States after living for a period with his sick mother in Austria -- had arranged to meet a gun buyer in Germany the day before he dropped his Porsche off at the German port but the meeting fell through.
Scharf then overslept and -- in a rush -- drove seven hours to the port at Bremerhaven to drop off his car and completely forgot that the gun parts were inside the Porsche, Kato said.
Both Scharf and his elderly mother testified at his trial.
Kato said her client was "very happy" and she also accused the U.S. government of failing to adequately investigate the case.
"Hopefully, the government will rethink bringing cases like this," she said.
Man Acquitted In 'Tommy Gun' Trial - News Story - KNBC | Los Angeles
Man Acquitted In 'Tommy Gun' Trial
