Former Otsego County Undersheriff Sentenced for Possession and Sale of Stolen Firearms

BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK – Arnold Bruce Carroll, 75, of Maryland, New York, was sentenced yesterday in federal court following his earlier plea of guilty to Possession of Stolen Firearms and Sale of a Stolen Firearm, announced Acting United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith.

Senior United States District Judge Thomas McAvoy sentenced Carroll to five years probation as well as imposing a fine in the amount of $10,000 and ordered him to perform 150 hours of community service. Carroll surrendered the stolen firearms to the FBI in the early stages of the investigation.

As part of his guilty plea on February 3, 2017, Carroll admitted that between 1995 and 2007 he was employed as Undersheriff at the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office, where he was also the sole evidence custodian for the agency and was directly responsible for the maintenance and disposal of all evidence recovered by the agency, including firearms. On numerous occasions between 1995 and 2007, Undersheriff Carroll stole 73 firearms from the evidence locker and falsely recorded on Sheriff’s Office records that the firearms had been destroyed pursuant to departmental policy. Instead, without the knowledge, approval, or authorization of anyone at the Sheriff’s Office, Carroll took the firearms to his house, where he possessed them. Further, on a number of occasions, all of which took place after the defendant retired from the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department, Carroll sold some of the stolen firearms to a gun store. On September 28, 2012, Carroll sold a stolen Smith and Wesson .44 magnum revolver to a third party (as charged in Count 2 of the information).

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Syracuse Resident Agency, the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Carl Eurenius and Carina Schoenberger.