Man free after sentence cut for firearms conviction

BANGOR – A former officer in the Calais Rod and Gun Club left the federal courthouse Monday a free man after serving less than half of his original sentence.

Peter David Frost, 36, of Meddybemps was resentenced to time served and released by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock.

He also was resentenced to two years of supervised release.

“I’m really happy with the judge’s decision,” Frost said after his release, as he stood in the lobby of the Margaret Chase Smith federal building in Bangor and waited for a family member to take him home. “I believe in my heart that the judge knew because of what I said at my trial that he wasn’t getting the full story. … There’s a lot more to my story.”

Frost was originally sentenced in August 2004 to three years and one month in prison for possessing firearms after he was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps. He was found guilty of the charge after a jury trial in April 2004.

Four months later, Woodcock sentenced Frost to 37 months in prison and two years of supervised release, the lowest possible sentence allowed under the federal sentencing guidelines. The judge did not impose a fine and allowed Frost to remain free on bail for another month.

Frost faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

“If the guidelines allowed me to impose a lower sentence, I would do so,” Woodcock said in August 2004. “I think it is abundantly clear that you did not know that you were not allowed to possess firearms. … I am convinced if a law enforcement officer had told you that you couldn’t have possessed firearms, you wouldn’t have.”

Based on the judge’s statement, Frost appealed his sentence to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. At the time of his sentencing, it was unclear whether the federal sentencing guidelines were mandatory or advisory. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the guidelines were advisory in January 2005.

Frost’s case is the first time Woodcock has departed significantly from the guidelines.

When he was arrested on June 24, 2003, at the Calais Rod and Gun Club, where an undercover Maine State Police detective had arranged to meet him and purchase a weapon, Frost had 15 firearms in his truck.

The same conviction that earned him a dishonorable discharge increased his federal sentence, Woodcock said at his original sentencing.

Frost enlisted in the Marines in 1987. He was found guilty of assault in 1992 after a military court-martial. He served five years in a military prison for shooting a security guard in the chest with a stolen gun during an attempted larceny.

In addition to serving as second vice president of the Calais Rod and Gun Club in Charlotte, Frost was certified by the National Rifle Association and taught safety courses at the club.

He resigned from the club shortly after his arrest.