Adair Police Chief still on unpaid leave as trial unfolds

Adair Police Chief Brad Wendt has been on unpaid leave from the city for over a week now, a status that will continue until the appeals process within his court case plays out.

According to City Attorney Clint Fichter, the city council met with Wendt, who has been police chief since July 2018, Monday, Feb. 26, in a special meeting. The decision to put Wendt on unpaid leave was decided on in that meeting.

“The council recognizes Brad’s situation and his conviction presents problems for him continuing to work as police chief, but they value his service, think he’s a good officer, and wanted to provide an avenue for him to come back to work if his appeals and other things relating to this case work out in his favor,” Fichter told the Adair County Free Press.

A timetable for Fichter’s return to work is neither in the city or Wendt’s hands. Fichter said these details have not be discussed yet. Wendt does have vacation he may utilize. Wendt will go to a part-time status of employment without pay until the situation is resolved.

On Feb. 14, a federal jury in Des Moines convicted Wendt, 47, of conspiring to make false statements to the ATF, making false statements to the ATF and illegal possession of a machine gun.

Wendt is also the owner of BW Outfitters, a federal firearms licensee in Denison. Evidence at trial showed between July 2018 and August 2022, Wendt used his position as chief of police to obtain machine guns for his own personal use and profit, including to buy machine guns for his own store.

Generally, machine guns made after May 1986 are illegal to transfer and possess. But, law enforcement agencies can buy machine guns for their official use and authorized dealers can get machine guns to demonstrate to a police department for the department’s future possible purchase. If a police department wants to purchase or receive a demonstration of a machine gun, it can submit a letter to ATF, referred to as a “law letter,” expressing its need for and interest in the machine gun.

Between July 2018 and August 2022, Wendt wrote nearly 40 law letters, requesting the purchase or demonstration of 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department. In the law letters to purchase machine guns for his two-man department, Wendt said he was buying the machine guns for the official use of his department and was not getting the machine guns for resale. In the law letters requesting demonstrations of machine guns, Wendt said the Adair Police Department wanted a demonstration for the department’s future possible purchase.

A jury found Wendt made false statements in several of these letters, convicting him of conspiracy to make false statements to the ATF and eight counts of making a false statement to the ATF. Evidence at trial showed Wendt purchased machine guns for the police department, but later resold those machine guns at a personal profit of nearly $80,000. The evidence also showed Wendt used demonstration law letters to purchase machine guns for BW Outfitters, including a .50 caliber machine gun called a “Ma Deuce,” which he immediately mounted to his personally owned armored Humvee.

Wendt was also convicted of illegal possession of a machine gun, based on his personal possession of a belt-fed, M60 machine gun registered to the Adair Police Department. Wendt, along with his gun store BW Outfitters, hosted a machine gun shoot in April 2022, where he charged the public to shoot machine guns, including several registered to the police department. The jury found Wendt was not acting within the scope of his official duties when he possessed the M60.

Wendt faces up to five years’ prison on the conspiracy count, five years’ prison for each false statement charge, and up to ten years’ prison for illegal possession of a machine gun. Sentencing is scheduled for June 14, at the United States Courthouse in Des Moines. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the United States sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.