Department of Justice

Bangor, Maine: United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Richard R. Hemingway, 34, of Ludlow, Maine, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Lance E. Walker to 12 months and a day in prison and two years of supervised release for providing false information during the purchase of two firearms. Hemingway pleaded guilty on August 21, 2018.

 

According to court records, on October 4, 2017, Hemingway purchased a Windham Weaponry ‘WW-15’ .300BLK caliber AR-15 style rifle and a Sig Sauer ‘MCX’ .300BLK caliber AR-15 style rifle from a federally licensed firearms dealer. In doing so, he completed a Firearms Transaction Record form in which he falsely reported that he was the actual purchaser of the firearms. In fact, Hemingway was buying the firearms for David Allen Polchies. On the same day the firearms were purchased, officers with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) arrested Polchies and Sharon Weeks as they attempted to smuggle the rifles, several high-capacity drum magazines, and 350 rounds of ammunition into Canada. Polchies and Weeks were prosecuted in Canada.

 

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with assistance from the CBSA. The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proved 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.