Patrick “Tate” Adamiak won’t get a new hearing, during which he would finally have had the opportunity to introduce evidence as to his innocence. Federal Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen saw to that.
Adamiak and his attorney had been prepping for the important hearing, which was scheduled for Thursday of this week, but Judge Wright Allen cancelled the hearing with only a week’s notice. In her written order, the judge wrote “his objections were previously addressed at his sentencing hearing and affirmed by the Fourth Circuit and cannot be re-raised at this resentencing hearing.”
“Accordingly, the Court is precluded from considering, and will not hear, any evidence or argument on the objections at the resentencing hearing,” Judge Wright Allen wrote.
The move stunned Adamiak, his friends and his father.
“We are disappointed to a certain degree because this case involved lies and tampering with evidence, and now they’re not allowing it to come out. They’re still trying to protect [ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer Jeffrery] Bodell, who was involved in the case. He actually lied to the judge, lied to the jury and did not show the proper evidence. This case involved perjury and tampering with evidence by the ATF. You can’t have a fair trial if the government is not telling the truth. That’s the bottom line. We just want the truth to come out, not a fabricated case, which you can never win,” said Dave Adamiak.
Adamiak remains at a federal holding facility where he was taken for the cancelled hearing. He was not available for comment.
The cancellation stunned another expert who has been involved in the case since the trial. Retired ATF Senior Special Agent Daniel O’Kelly has personally examined more than 100,000 firearms and even more ammunition during his 33 years in law enforcement—10 years as a police officer and 23 years with the ATF.
O’Kelly started with the ATF as a Special Agent in 1988. He was responsible for investigating arson, bombings, explosives, organized crime and drug trafficking, but the agency soon realized he was capable of far more. O’Kelly was certified as an expert firearm witness in federal court in 1990. Ten year later, he was chosen to serve as ATF’s Resident Agent in Charge of the State of Delaware. He has served as the firearm instructor coordinator of ATF’s Tampa Field Division. He became the chief firearm technology instructor at ATF’s National Academy, where he wrote the firearm technology course for ATF personnel, which is still in use.
Today, O’Kelly is director of the International Firearm Specialist Academy located in Grand Island, Florida. His clients include prosecutors and defense attorneys, law enforcement agencies, gun dealers and firearm manufacturers, importers and collectors.
O’Kelly was hired by the defense attorneys who first represented Adamiak, but federal prosecutors blocked O’Kelly from testifying on nearly every issue. However, Adamiak’s original defense attorneys were able to get him on the stand to stop ATF’s untruths involving MAC flats—flat pieces of metal that are designed to be bent in a jig or welded to form the lower receiver of a MAC-style pistol or carbine.
After lengthy testimony, the judge sided with O’Kelly, and denied the prosecutors’ attempt to penalize Adamiak for the 977 flat pieces of metal prosecutors claimed were machineguns. The additional 10 years prosecutors wanted for the flats were not added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence, thanks to O’Kelly.
Adamiak’s new defense team chose O’Kelly as an expert witness for the hearing that was just cancelled. He remains completely sure of Adamiak’s innocence. “There is nothing in the evidence I’ve examined that qualifies as a violation of the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act,” O’Kelly said Sunday afternoon.
I asked O’Kelly if Adamiak was an innocent man behind bars. “Yes. I’ve seen no evidence of any violation of any gun laws. Given my 23 years of experience, in this case I don’t see any proof of a violation,” he said.
O’Kelly holds ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey Bodell responsible for Adamiak’s undeserved prison sentence. “Bodell did great damage to Adamiak’s case either by intentionally misleading the courtroom or by incompetence, whatever the case is,” O’Kelly said. “As a result, he has cost the man three years of his life.”
Takeaways
Adamiak’s defense attorney, Calum Welch, wanted the ATF to answer longstanding questions about this case.
“We’re disappointed and would have liked the opportunity to address some of the underlying determinations at this resentencing, especially following some of the regulatory changes and recent Supreme Court decisions. Vanderstock does raise some context in how to re-estimate ATF’s authority. Some of the recent rule changes also merit further examination,” Welch said.
He added that the ATF’s own interpretations when applied to the items that Adamiak possessed were not consistent with their own regulations.
“We will now focus on getting Tate back home where he belongs,” Welch said.
The cancellation of the hearing hit Adamiak’s family hard, especially his father, Dave.
“We’re basically in limbo and Tate’s in purgatory,” Adamiak’s father said. “We don’t know what’s going on.”