The judge who freed an alleged cop-shooter on pittance bail last year gave a sweetheart sentence Wednesday to a man who sold an assault rifle to an undercover cop – slicing a hefty prison stretch down to six months in jail, the Brooklyn DA fumed today.
Dominick Bunch, a naval reservist who was hauled off a military flight from California to Afghanistan so he could face justice in New York, sold an SKS assault rifle to an undercover cop for $720 across the street from a school on Herzl Street in Brownsville in June of 2009 and pleaded guilty in exchange for a 5-year-sentence.
But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, who created a flap when he freed alleged gunman Elijah Foster-Bey on $100,000 bail, overruled the agreement, instead giving Bunch six months inside to be followed by six months of probation.
“It’s an absolute outrage,” said Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, noting Reichbach’s sentence can’t be appealed. “He should be ashamed of himself.”
“A gun trafficker lives on blood money, and New York’s graveyards are filled with the result. Leniency in this case is an insult to the public’s intelligence and its safety, not to mention to the efforts of the undercover officers who risk their lives to keep guns and traffickers off the street. It also dishonors the legions of victims of gun violence. There’s only one word for the sentence: disgraceful.” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
Bunch was arrested in April 2010 after he was indicted in “Operation Phoenix,” which netted 16 other gun sellers.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly lauded the efforts of operation’s undercover purchase, who bought 153 guns in 105 separate transactions.
Bunch, who faced up to seven years inside, claimed that he had acquired the gun in exchange for work he had done on a car and had held it for three years before offloading it to the undercover.
Defense lawyer Kent Arthur said the 22-year-old Bunch, who had an otherwise clean record, was “happy” with the deal.
“The young man made a mistake,” Arthur said. “The judge weighed what he did against the rest of his life. At the time of his arrest he was on his way to fight for his country.”
Bunch’s mother Darlene Bunch said she was “blessed” by the shortened sentence, noting that her son, who is married and has a small child, sold the gun without ammo and it wasn’t used in a crime.
“We all have done’ something in the past that we’re ashamed of,” Darlene Bunch said. “I didn’t even want that [six months], but I’m blessed with that.”
Reichbach did not return a call for comment.
