Former Iowa police chief sentenced to 5 years in prison in federal gun case

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former small-town Iowa police chief has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for lying to authorities to acquire machine guns that prosecutors say he sold for his own profit. Former Adair Police Chief Brad Wendt was convicted in February of conspiring to make false statements to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making false statements to the agency and illegal possession of a machine gun. KCCI-TV reports that he was sentenced Monday. Authorities say Wendt bought machine guns for the police department, then sold them for an almost $80,000 personal profit. Wendt’s attorney, Nicholas Klinefeldt, has said that the jury convicted Wendt based on erroneous jury instructions, and that an appeal was planned.