The former self-proclaimed commander of the Pennsylvania Citizens Militia, whom the government regarded as a threat to national security, will be sentenced to two years in prison on a federal firearms charge.
Ronald William Hertzog, 62, of State College, was sentenced Wednesday in US Middle District Court, but his case is far from over.
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His guilty plea last December for unlawfully possessing weapon components and ammo was conditional.
He is entitled to withdraw it if he successfully appeals Judge Matthew W. Brann’s decision last August to deny his petition to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the facts did not give rise to the offense charged.
According to defense attorney E.J. Rymsza, the appeal will be filed now that he has been sentenced.
When he pled guilty, Hertzog admitted to illegally possessing 486 rounds of various caliber ammunition, 10 20-gauge shotgun shells, and parts for two rifles, all of which the government wants confiscated.
Brann received a sentence of two years in jail followed by three years of supervised release, although the sentencing guidelines ranged from 27 to 33 months.
The judge granted the Harrisburg native a postponement in reporting to prison until July 28 to let him make arrangements for his wife, who has major medical concerns.
Rymsza argued that his client is not a threat to national security, as claimed more than 20 years ago.
Hertzog was detained in 2002 as part of an inquiry into the citizen militia’s actions, which included initial intentions to bomb the FBI office in State College.
Among the items discovered during a subsequent search of his property were a homemade silencer, several machine gun-type weapons, a machine gun receiver, three additional rifles with instructions on how to convert them into fully automatic weaponry, more than 100 rounds of bullets, some of which were armor-piercing, inert grenades, and books on how to create and conceal illegal weapons.
Prosecutors labeled him a terrorist, but he insisted he was simply preparing for World War III. “I love my country,” he told the late Judge James F. McClure Jr., who sentenced him to 70 months in 2003.
According to Homeland Security Agent Christopher Dukes, Hertzog remained under investigation after being released from jail in 2007 because the FBI considered he posed a threat to national security.
The inquiry that led to the most recent accusation began when a parcel labeled “girl’s skirts” delivered from China to Hertzog’s address was seized at Los Angeles International Airport and discovered to contain two suspected firearm silencers.
The investigation included a February 2, 2022, search of the Hertzog property, during which the ammo was discovered in the detached garage. The house yielded no discoveries.
Hertzog said that the FBI returned the ammo to his father while he was serving his term in the first case.
Hertzog explained that he and his wife did not move in with his mother until after his father died in 2015.
Rymsza acknowledged that Hertzog had committed a felony by possessing ammunition but deemed it meaningless because no firearms were discovered in either the garage or the residence.
Hertzog, who has lupus and requires a new hip, has never called for the overthrow of the government, and he believes it is an injustice for the feds to label him a risk.
