Former Addyston police chief gets home detention for machine guns scheme

A former Addyston police chief has been sentenced to six months of home detention and three years of probation for illegally trafficking 200 fully automatic machine guns.

A federal judge in Indianapolis on Tuesday also ordered Dorian LaCourse to pay a fine of $11,800 – $300 more than he pocketed in a scheme with two federally licensed firearms dealers in Indiana, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

LaCourse, 66, of Milford, earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements.

Co-conspirators to be sentenced later

Johnathan Marcum, 34, of Laurel, Indiana, and Christopher Petty, 58, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, have also pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and will be sentenced later this year.

The department of justice said LaCourse, Marcum, and Petty exploited a law enforcement exception to the federal ban on possessing and transferring fully automatic machine guns to further their scheme.

LaCourse signed multiple letters falsely stating that the Addyston police department was interested in buying various types of machine guns, including military-grade weapons, and asking that Marcum and/or Petty be granted permission to demonstrate how the guns worked, the department’s release said.

Marcum and Petty got some of the weapons by sending the letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ultimately investigated the case.

The release said LaCourse also placed direct orders for German-made machine guns that were purported to be paid for by the police department but were actually paid for by Marcum and Petty.

The Addyston police department was never authorized to purchase any of the machine guns and the Indiana gun dealers never provided any demonstrations to the department, the release said.

Machine guns resold 'at a significant profit'

The release said the gun dealers resold the machine guns at a significant profit, in some instances for five or six times the purchase price.

Zachary Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in the release that law enforcement officers are sworn to protect communities and uphold the law.

“Instead, (LaCourse) sold his badge to facilitate a criminal machine gun trafficking conspiracy,” Myers said.

“With heartbreaking regularity, we see the carnage that criminals can inflict on our communities with weapons of war. (Tuesday’s) sentence demonstrates that officers who violate the public’s trust with utter disregard for the public’s safety will be held accountable.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Former Addyston police chief accused of trafficking in machine guns sentenced