Rather than provide the update in another post I’m bumping this thread from three  months ago – just so you can see the comments and review the outcome.
You’re not going to believe how this story ended.   The update is after the original outline (bottom) 

——————-  Original Story  —————

Mr. Mark Witaschek is first known prosecution for expended, inoperable, unregistered ammunition – “a misfired shotgun shell”.

WASHINGTON DC – A year ago this month, the attorney general for the District of  Columbia let NBC News anchor David  Gregory off scot-free for possession of a “high capacity” magazine because  doing so “would not promote public safety.”

Now, Irvin Nathan refuses to use that  same prosecutorial discretion for an average citizen who violated a bizarre  technicality that makes empty casings and shells a crime as serious as having an  illegal firearm.
Mr. Witaschek, a successful financial  adviser with no criminal history, is the first known case of a citizen being  prosecuted in D.C. for inoperable ammunition. Washington  police and prosecutors have spent a year and a half trying to nail him for  the possession of so-called unregistered ammunition.
A hunter and gun owner, Mr. Witaschek has  always kept his firearms at his sister’s house in Virginia. If convicted, he  faces a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for having a single, inoperable shotgun  shell in his home. The jury trial starts on Feb. 11.
The Metropolitan Police Department raided Mr. Witaschek’s rented Georgetown house  twice in the summer of 2012 on the word of his angry ex-wife.
Frustrated with not finding the promised firearms, the police handcuffed him, searched his home top to bottom and came out with only  ammunition, which carries the same felony penalty as a firearm.
Mr. Witaschek told me this week, “Since the  night my home was invaded and family terrorized by a militarized D.C. police  force, I am more afraid of what government is doing than I am of any of the  people I encountered when I spent the night in jail.”
He added, “The Second Amendment was meant to guarantee individuals the right  to protect themselves against government — as much as against private bad guys  and gangs.”
There have been two pre-trail hearings in the case so far. At the end of the  first hearing in November, Judge Robert  Morin gave the government until Jan. 3 to come up with a good defense for  the initial police raid without a search warrant.
Knowing things weren’t going in their favor, the two assistant attorneys  general for the District on the case, Peter  Saba and Oritsejemine Trouth,  offered Mr. Witaschek probation if he pleaded  guilty. He declined the offer.
At the second hearing, the judge disallowed the first warrantless search and  the fruits of it. This eliminated a box of rifle ammunition from the  charges.
Undeterred, the prosecutors continued with the two items from the second raid  — a misfired 12-gauge shotgun shell and a box of muzzleloader sabots.
Sabots are plastic covers that make it easier to push the bullet into a  muzzleloader gun. There is no propellent on the bullet or sabot — because the  gunpowder is separated — so it is not clear that it can be categorized as  ammunition and thus only registered gun owners can possess it.
Thus, the single vaguely legitimate remaining charge for “unregistered  ammunition” is the misfired shotgun shell that Mr.  Witaschek has kept as a souvenir from deer hunting years earlier. The shell  cannot be fired because the primer was already stricken and failed to propel  it.   (continue reading)

 
UPDATE  3/28/14  (Via Emily Miller)  In a surprising twist at the end of a long trial, a District of Columbia judge found Mark Witaschek guilty of “attempted possession of unlawful ammunition” for antique replica muzzleloader bullets.
Judge Robert Morin sentenced Mr. Witaschek to time served, a $50 fine and required him to enroll with the Metropolitan Police Department’s firearm offenders’ registry within 48 hours.
Outside the courtroom, I asked Mr. Witaschek how he felt about the verdict. “I’m completely outraged by it,” he said. “This is just a continuation of the nightmare. Just to sit there. I could not believe it.”
Shaking his head, he added, “None of these people know anything about gun issues, including the judge.”
His wife Bonnie Witaschek was crying. “It’s just so scary,” she said. “You never think you’ll end up in a situation like this, but here we are.”
Mr. Witaschek’s attorney Howard X. McEachern shook his client’s hand and said, “We’re not done.” Mr. McEachern plans to appeal the decision.
I asked the defense attorney for his opinion of the verdict. “Clearly the judge thought that this was overkill — the sentence reflects how he felt about the prosecution of this case,” he replied.
Until the final hours of the trial, both the defense and government focused the case on whether the single 12 gauge shotgun shell that was found in Mr. Witaschek’s D.C. home was operable. The judge, however, never ruled on it.
In the afternoon on Wednesday, Judge Morin shook the plastic shell and tried to listen to something inside. He said he could not hear any gunpowder. He then asked the lawyers to open the shell to see if there was powder inside.
(This seemed like a bizarre request since the lack of primer — not gunpowder — would be relevant to the interoperability of the misfired shell.)
Assistant Attorney General Peter Saba said that the government wanted to open the shell but that, “It is dangerous to do outside a lab.”
The prosecutors and police officers left the courtroom to try to find a lab that was open in the afternoon to bring the judge to cut the plastic off the section that holds the pellets. When that proved not possible in the same day, the judge decided to just rule on the bullets.
The 25 conical-shaped, .45 caliber bullets, made by Knight out of lead and copper, sat on the judge’s desk. They do not have primer or gunpowder so cannot be propelled. The matching .50 caliber plastic sabots were also in the box.
There was much debate over whether the bullets were legal since D.C. residents are allowed to buy antique replica firearms without registering. (continue reading)