Department of Justice

HAMMOND- Edward Timothy Rzasa, 49 years old, of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge James Moody on his plea of guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Rzasa was sentenced to 33 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, on August 2, 2021, Officers with the Griffith Police Department arrested Rzasa based on an outstanding arrest warrant. During a search incident to his arrest, Officers recovered a loaded .380 caliber pistol which they learned had previously been reported as stolen. According to his criminal history, Rzasa had multiple prior felony convictions.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives/High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force and the Griffith Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Padilla.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.