The lawyer for an Adrian gun dealer charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number has asked that the case be dismissed, alleging retaliatory and selective prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Walter Priest, 53, is being prosecuted not because of an alleged illegal gun sale two years ago, but because “he may have engaged in other legitimate firearms transactions” with members of the Hutaree militia, according to a motion to dismiss the case by his attorney, Harold Gurewitz.

Priest, owner of Gun Outfitters, LLC was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 20. He is accused of selling a rifle with a partial serial number to a Lansing area man on July 4, 2008.

According to the motion filed last week by Priest's attorney, the man who bought the gun and was identified in a Bath Township police report as a “suspect” wasn't prosecuted.

The motion claims the government "reinitiated an apparently dormant" investigation into Priest in February 2009 after launching its "high-profile investigation leading to the Hutaree indictment."

It also alleges "ATF officials have apparently engaged in a pattern of leaks" to AnnArbor.com, The Detroit News and Newsweek, attempting to link Priest “to the now notorious Hutaree indictment.”

Nine members of Hutaree are awaiting trial after being indicted in March on charges including seditious conspiracy and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

Among the allegations is that Hutaree members planned to kill a law enforcement officer and attack the funeral procession motorcade with homemade bombs. Five members were ordered detained pending trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit has not yet filed a response to Gurewitz's motion. Office spokeswoman Gina Balaya had no immediate comment when reached by phone this morning.

According to the motion, the Lansing area man bought the gun from Priest and took it to another federal firearms licensee nine days later to have a scope mounted on it. That licensee turned it over to Bath Township police four days later "because of his opinion that some of the digits of the manufacturer's serial number" were missing, the motion says.

The motion is scheduled to be heard Sept. 15 in federal court in Detroit by U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds.

Priest is out on a $100,000 unsecured bond, federal court records show.

Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. Reach him by phone at (734) 623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.