GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A former Kalamazoo County sheriff's sergeant, who was indicted last year on weapons charges, has been sentenced to pay a $250 fine on a misdemeanor charge in the case.
Matthew E. Emmert, 54, reached a plea agreement in January in which he pleaded guilty to one count of willful failure to supply information. As a part of the plea deal, the indictment against Emmert was dismissed and he avoided trial on felony charges of possession of an unregistered machine gun and possession of a machine gun.
Emmert was sentenced in front of Magistrate Judge Hugh Brenneman Jr. in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids Monday. Emmert didn't receive incarceration or probation in the case. The court received several letters of support for Emmert, including his former co-workers at the sheriff's office, court documents show.
The July indictment of Emmert stemmed from a machine gun – a STEN-type, 9 mmm Luger caliber firearm – that was found Dec. 3, 2012 when sheriff’s office personnel cleaned out Emmert’s locker following his retirement.
According to Emmert's sentencing memorandum, in the late 1990s, Deputy Mark Caley gave the machine gun to Emmert in exchange for a shotgun. Emmert showed the gun to a captain at the sheriff's office, who told him to lock it in the departmental armory.
In 2009, the undersheriff ordered all personal property be removed from the armory. At that point, the machine gun was transferred to Emmert's locker. Emmert has never fired the weapon, the sentencing memorandum said.
On Dec. 4, 2012, Emmert asked Undersheriff Paul Matyas that the sheriff's office keep the receiver arm firing mechanism, which makes the weapon a machine gun under federal law, and return the remaining parts to him. Emmert didn't submit any of the required information to the federal government prior to transferring the receiver to the sheriff's office, the sentencing memo said.
When the sheriff's office personnel cleaned out Emmert's locker, the matter was reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
