Former officer pleads guilty to gun charge
A former Plum police sergeant pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to attempting to mail a handgun that had vanished from the department's evidence room.
The deal prosecutors struck with Andrew McNelis III is sealed, and neither they nor his defense lawyer would say whether the agreement requires him to provide evidence in the FBI's continuing probe of potential civil rights violations by Plum police officers.
McNelis, 34, faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In exchange for his plea, the government agreed to drop a more serious charge of knowingly possessing a stolen firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Defense lawyer Michael DeRiso called it a "fair" deal.
DeRiso said McNelis didn't take the gun from the department's evidence locker.
"How he got it will come to light at a later point," said DeRiso, who huddled with U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Miller to privately discuss conditions of the plea agreement.
McNelis illegally tried to mail a Colt .45 seized during a May 11, 2000, domestic dispute.
Gun owner Gerald Burch, of Plum, went to police headquarters on March 12, 2002, to get the gun back, but it was missing from the evidence room, Miller said. Surveillance videos showed McNelis 10 days later mailing a package -- addressed to Burch -- that contained the weapon.
The package, however, never made it to Burch's home. He had moved, and the package went to the return address -- the borough building.
Federal authorities were called into the Plum police department in October 2002 to investigate the disappearance of a second gun -- a .38-caliber revolver -- and an unspecified amount of marijuana, police officials have said.
McNelis, who is free on bond pending his Oct. 7 sentencing, is not a suspect in the investigation of the other missing items, DeRiso said.
Plum Mayor John Schmeck said the plea shows he was right in pushing to fire former chief Terry Focareta in 2002. In 2004, the borough paid $510,000 to settle a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by the former chief.
"Andrew McNelis was Terry Focareta's right-hand man," Schmeck said. "This guilty plea exemplifies how right I was in firing Andy McNelis, and time will prove that we were just as right with the firing of Terry Focareta. As I said in 1999, under Terry Focareta, that police department was out of control."
Focareta could not be reached for comment.
Councilman Steve Taylor said the whole situation is unfortunate.
"It's always a sad day for the Plum police department when one of our police officers gets involved in something at this level," Taylor said. "I wish the best for everyone."
McNelis was suspended in 2002 in connection with the gun incident, then fired in 2003 after an investigation showed he had altered a police report to inflate damages from vandalism to his house. He is serving probation for a July 2004 conviction of insurance fraud and tampering with public records.
