Week In Review – Hammond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Mary Hatton

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/ CELL: (219) 314-9993

mary.hatton@usdoj.gov

Hammond, Indiana - The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

PLEAS:

Michael Delgado, 21, of Hammond, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.Sentencing has been set for 10/3/13.This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives HIDTA Task Force and the Lake County Police Department.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.

Matthew Jasek, 30, of Schererville, Indiana, pled guilty before Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry to the felony offense of possession of child pornography.Magistrate Cherry is recommending that the district court accept the tendered guilty plea.Parties have 10 days in which to object to the magistrate judge’s recommendation. This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas McGrath.

Nalon Edmonds, 21, of Gary, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of being an unlawful user of marijuana in possession of a firearm.Sentencing has been set for 9/24/13.This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Indiana University Northwest Police Department.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.

Deanbra Martin, 23, of Gary, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.Sentencing has been set for 9/17/13.This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Michigan City Police Department.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Kolar.

If convicted in court, any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

DISPOSITIONS:

Joseph Gilman, 23, and Derek Muilenburg, 25, of Demotte, Indiana and defendants in the case US v Humphrey et al., were sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano.Both Gilman and Muilenburg were sentenced to 46 months imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin. This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.

Nicole Smith, 31, of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced by Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich to 1 year of probation after pleading guilty to the felony misdemeanor of theft of government property.According to documents filed by the government in this case, Smith admitted that during the 2008-2009 academic school year at Purdue University-Calumet she submitted an application to receive federal funds for student aid and failed to report additional income received from Action for Children, which provides financial assistance for childcare for families living in the state of Illinois.This case was the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Service-Office of the Inspector General.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Toi Houston.

Ronald Slusser, 49, and Joseph Kumstar, 42, both of Crown Point, Indiana, defendants in the case US v Kabella et al., were sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody on June 27, 2013.Slusser was sentenced to 70 months imprisonment and 1year of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of conspiracy to provide false information to a Federal Firearms Licensee, conspiracy to defraud the FDA, making false statements on a tax return and laundering/structuring of monetary instruments.Slusser was also ordered to pay $198,817.71 in restitution to the IRS for tax years 2005-2010.Kumstar was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment and 1 year of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of conspiracy to provide false information to a Federal Firearms Licensee, conspiracy to defraud the FDA and making false statements on a tax return.Kumstar was ordered to pay $22,612.62 in restitution to the IRS for tax years 2005-2009.According to documents filed by the government in this case, Slusser, while a patrol officer with the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, and Kumstar, while the Deputy Chief for the Lake County Sheriffs Department, conspired to obtain restricted firearms and defraud the FDA in order to retain restricted laser sites.The conspiracy involved the trafficking of between 25-99 firearms.This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Food and Drug Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Philip Benson.

Nancy Stofko, 37, of Crown Point, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 21 months imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release and restitution to the victim in the amount of $572,173.09 after pleading guilty to the felony offense of wire fraud.According to documents filed by the government in this case, Stofko admitted that while employed as an office manager at the Complete Valve Repair Services, Inc. she wrote checks and used the company credit cards to make hundreds of unauthorized purchases for her personal use and benefit. This case was the result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randall Stewart.