Man Enters Not Guilty Plea to Gun Charges
A Costa Mesa man pleaded not guilty to federal weapons charges Monday as prosecutors stressed that the man was not arrested as a suspected white supremacist.
Josh D. Lee, 23, pleaded not guilty to illegally possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun and a Colt .45 pistol whose serial number had been removed.
He was arrested last month on the same day that federal agents in Los Angeles County carried out a series of arrests aimed at smashing an alleged plot by a group of skinheads in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen G. Wolfe said that although Lee’s arrest grew out of the same investigation and “some announcements may have come from this office in which he may not have been adequately distinguished from the other defendants . . . there’s no direct evidence of his selling weapons to any of the co-defendants, or any members of the skinhead organization.”
“Based on everything we know,” Wolfe said, “he doesn’t have any white supremacist views.”
No additional charges are likely to be filed against Lee, who is free on $100,000 bail, Wolfe said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald W. Rose set Lee’s trial for Oct. 5.
In addition to forfeiting both weapons, Lee faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines if convicted of possessing the 20-gauge sawed-off shotgun, which was not registered in accordance with federal laws, and the Colt .45 caliber pistol without a serial number, Wolfe said.
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