Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 03/24/08

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Donna Edwards - 565-3099 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Christine M. Cook

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

TWO PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS GUILTY OF FELONY CONSPIRACY
TO DESTROY ILLEGAL FIREARMS

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced that former Santa Rosa Fire Fighter Daniel E. Lusk and Rohnert Park Public Safety Officer Frank E. Higdon were found guilty by plea on Thursday, March 20, 2008 by Superior Court Judge Lawrence Antolini.  Judge Antolini found both men guilty after they entered pleas of “no contest” to the felony count of conspiring  to destroy evidence. The evidence they have admitted conspiring to destroy included illegal firearms receivers and illegal assault weapons. The men face a maximum of three years in state prison.

The charges arose out of an investigation begun by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). While conducting an investigation into the illegal importation of fully automatic firearm receivers, ATF agents traced two of the illegal receivers to Defendant Dan Lusk.  hen questioned by the agents, Defendant Dan Lusk told them that he had cut up the receivers and the pieces might still be at his home in Rohnert Park. Defendant Dan Lusk then phoned Defendant Higdon and his wife, Cynthia Lusk,  instructing both to immediately destroy the wanted receivers and  other illegal assault weapons that were also stored in the home. Defendant Higdon was in the process of destroying the receivers and weapons in the Lusk’s garage when local law enforcement arrived.

The remaining charges against Higdon and Lusk, which all involved the possession and destruction of the illegal weapons, and the case against Defendant Lusk’s wife, Cynthia R. Lusk, will be dismissed at the time of sentencing.

The defendants will be sentenced in Department Three on May 8, 2008 at 9:00 a.m.

Chief Deputy District Attorney William Brockley was the prosecutor assigned to the case.