CONTACT: Barbara Burns
PHONE: (716) 843-5817
FAX #: (716) 551-3051
ROCHESTER, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Stephen Reed Pattison, 33, of Hilton, NY, who was convicted of possession of firearms and ammunition by a convicted felon, was sentenced to serve 96 months in prison by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey, who handled the case, stated that in December 2016, Pattison was convicted of Domestic Assault in the Second Degree in Boone County, Missouri, and was legally prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition. On October 30, 2020, Pattison was taken into custody on a parole absconder warrant from Missouri. In November 2020, law enforcement officers conducted a search of the Church Road residence that Pattison shared with his girlfriend and recovered two firearms, 25 rounds of ammunition, a black tactical vest with an expandable baton and knife, various items of white supremacist and Nazi paraphernalia.
As part of his guilty plea, Pattison admitted that he attempted to obstruct justice by telling his girlfriend to lie to the police and testify falsely that the firearms recovered did not belong to him. Pattison also attempted to obtain false affidavits from the individuals who gave him the firearms and ammunition. Pattison wanted the individuals to state that they gave the firearms to his girlfriend after he was taken into custody.
As detailed in a complaint against Pattison, he is a supporter of white supremacist ideology who frequently expressed racial animus and disdain for activist and political groups, such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and aggressively and sometimes violently expressed his disagreement with local protests in Rochester over the deaths of George Floyd and Daniel Prude.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Belongia.
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