Meet the man whose lies put an innocent sailor in prison for 20 years

ATF Firearm Enforcement Officer Jeffrey R. Bodell had never testified before the trial.

(Photo-illustration from licensed Shutterstock account).

by Lee Williams

The government’s case against Patrick “Tate” Adamiak was led by two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, but their main witness became the real reason why a jury found Adamiak guilty, and a federal judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

To be clear, Adamiak was railroaded by Jeffrey R. Bodell, who works out of a small ATF office in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

According to documents obtained by the Second Amendment Foundation, Bodell is an ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer, or FEO, who has worked in ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division since he was hired in November 2020.

When he took the stand to testify falsely about what he did to Adamiak’s firearms, Bodell had been an ATF employee for less than two years.

Most damning was the fact that this was the first time Bodell had ever testified at any trial.

Bodell’s inexperience was not missed by Adamiak’s defense attorney, Larry Woodward, according to a transcript of the trial:

• MR. WOODWARD: Good morning, sir. My name is Larry Woodward and I represent Mr. Adamiak. My question is have you ever testified as a witness, expert witness before?

• THE WITNESS (Bodell): I have not. This is my first time.

• MR. WOODWARD: This is your first time?

• THE WITNESS (Bodell): Yes, sir.

• MR. WOODWARD: Okay. Thank you.

Background

According to his Curriculum Vitae, in December 2011 Bodell earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Shippensburg University, which is located in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. However, school officials did not return calls seeking to verify his degree.

Bodell also states he obtained a diploma from a “Master Gunsmithing Program” in May 2017 at the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School, which is located in Pittsburgh. However, school officials did not return calls seeking verification.

After earning his gunsmithing degree, Bodell’s CV shows he worked at three gun shops but for short periods of time.

He claims to have worked for Lebo’s Gunsmithing in Shippensburg for 10 months, Legendary Arms Works in Harrisburg for 16 months, and then he ran his own gun shop called Bodell Custom, LLC, for 17 months in Shippensburg. After closing his own gun shop, Bodell went to work for the ATF.

According to a transcript from Adamiak’s trial, Bodell described his career rather quickly.

“I attended Pennsylvania Gunsmith School where I, upon graduation I worked for a small gunsmithing shop for good, a year and a half, conducting general gunsmithing. After that I worked for a semi-custom production bolt-action rifle company making rifles for a year and a half. And then after that I had my own gunsmithing business based out of my house,” the excerpt from the trial states.

It should be noted that Bodell’s six-page Curriculum Vitae is loaded with long lists of the firearms on which he was trained, but it is also chock-full of nonessential information, including legislation he has studied, historic information he received, museums he has toured, and trade shows he attended.

Bodell did not respond to calls or messages left on his cell phone or with his employer. No photo of Bodell could be found.

Problems

Adamiak, who is now 31, was just a 28-year-old E-6 in the U.S. Navy prior to his arrest. He enjoyed firearms and ran a private website that sold gun parts—not guns. He was always extremely careful about what he sold. After all, he had to protect his naval career, which was doing extremely well.

Adamiak was unprepared for Bodell or his incredible deceptions, which have become almost legendary. Bodell actually turned toys into firearms and legal semi-autos into machineguns.

Bodell inserted a real STEN action and a real STEN barrel into Adamiak’s toy STEN submachinegun and got it to fire one round, even though the toy’s receiver wouldn’t accept a real STEN magazine. Bodell actually classified the toy, which are very popular, as a machinegun.

Bodell fired five of Adamiak’s very expensive and extremely collectible legal semi-autos, which fire from an open bolt. All the ATF technician could achieve was semi-auto fire, but that didn’t stop him. He classified all five highly sought after firearms as machineguns.

Bodell ruled that several receivers that had been cut in half were actually machineguns. The same parts are still legally sold online and do not require an FFL or any paperwork.

RPGs

The worst thing Bodell told the court were his misconceptions about two inert RPGs.

Bodell took the inert rocket launchers to the ATF’s lab and added missing fire-control components including a firing pin from a functional RPG from the ATF’s collection. The agent also added a sub-caliber training device that resembles a warhead, which can fire 7.62x39mm rounds on its own without even loading it into an RPG.

“He fired a 7.62x39mm rifle cartridge through it utilizing the sub-caliber training device, which is a standalone rifle that can be fired independently on its own,” Adamiak said last week.

Bodell falsely testified that the missing parts didn’t matter, legally.

“It doesn't matter whether it fires or not, and if it’s missing some component parts, it wouldn't be relevant to the classification of a destructive device,” Bodell told the court, which is not what the statute or case law state.

Bodell even made a video of him and an assistant firing one rifle round from Adamiak’s heavily converted RPG.

“An RPG is a very simple and crude device,” Adamiak said. “Taking a piece of metal pipe and hose clamping a fire control mechanism to it would effectively duplicate what Bodell did in his testing.”

Takeaways

Because the ATF screwed up, kicked down Adamiak’s door and then created a multitude of fake charges, it proves they would rather prosecute an innocent man and force him to serve two decades behind bars than admit the truth—that their special agents don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. That’s why the ATF was forced to call in their ringer, Bodell, to help make their fake case.

Once the ATF turned the case over to Bodell, Adamiak’s innocence no longer mattered. Bodell would break all the rules.

All of what Bodell insisted were illegal items are still sold legally online: Inert RPGs, toy STENs, submachinegun receivers and especially open-bolt semi-autos. The RPGs, toy STENs and submachinegun receivers don’t require any paperwork to purchase.

Bodell is not alone. His opinions, and those of his colleagues, other Firearm Enforcement Officers, are fed to them by senior ATF officials. That is why Adamiak received such a stiff two-decade sentence, because these FEOs are paid liars. In many cases, it’s like they are the half-educated leading the blind.

Despite Bodell’s and the ATF’s untruths, an anti-gun judge crippled Adamiak’s defense. One of his defense experts, former ATF senior official Daniel G. O’Kelly, wasn’t even allowed to testify much despite his vast knowledge.

O’Kelly joined the ATF as a Special Agent in 1988 after serving 10 years as a police officer. He became a legend within the agency, including a stint as the lead instructor of Firearm Technology on staff at the ATF National Academy. O’Kelly has taught internationally and co-wrote the program establishing the Certified Firearm Specialist for the ATF, while he was at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

After lengthy testimony from both Bodell and O’Kelly on one issue, the judge sided with O’Kelly, and denied the prosecutors’ attempt to penalize Adamiak for 977 additional “machineguns,” which were just flat pieces of metal. The additional 10 years prosecutors wanted for the flats were not added to Adamiak’s 20-year sentence.

O’Kelly, and Adamiak, wishes he could have testified about the other false claims prosecutors made in the case. Even though his testimony was very limited by the court, O’Kelly still wishes Adamiak well.

“The ATF teaches its agents the minimum about guns. If they encounter something they don’t understand, they’re supposed to ask the (Firearms Enforcement Officer), but the answer they get is a directed response from the administration. These FEOs are not allowed to give their opinions,” O’Kelly said Thursday afternoon. “The FEO’s testimony is a substance of the opinion that was forced by official ATF opinion on any firearm issue. That official opinion is based upon what an anti-gun administration has told them is should be. I’ve proven that, in terms of what the ATF has suffered on a number of issues.”

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