A former Pennsylvania police chief known for profane YouTube rants about guns and liberals that went viral has lost a bid to void his conviction for lying when he tried to buy a firearm.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, a state Superior Court panel ruled that ex-Gilberton Chief Mark Kessler’s conviction and his 2-year probation sentence must stand.

President Judge Emeritus Susan Peikes Gantman rejected Kessler’s argument that he deserved a new trial or the complete dismissal of his charges because of supposed misconduct by a prosecutor.

As Gantman noted in the state court’s opinion, Kessler was awaiting trial on an unrelated terroristic threats charge when he went into a sporting goods store in Frackville in May 2016 to try to buy a .45 caliber pistol

On the federal and state background check forms required for such a purchase, Kessler stated that he was not under indictment for any felony that carried a prison term of more than a year, Gantman wrote.

Prosecutors claimed that was a lie because the terroristic threats charge Kessler faced allowed for a prison term of up to 5 years.

Kessler’s gun purchase application was denied when the store clerk ran it through the Pennsylvania Instant Check System. The ex-chief didn’t question the denial, but just walked out of the store, Gantman wrote.

A Schuylkill County jury convicted Kessler in April 2018 of knowingly making false statements on the gun purchase forms.

Kessler, now 47, of Frackville, claimed on appeal that a mistrial should have been declared in the case when the deputy attorney general who was prosecuting him asked if he had a 1989 retail theft conviction as a juvenile. That constituted prosecutorial misconduct. Kessler insisted.

County Judge Charles M. Miller, who presided over the trial, refused the defense attorney’s request for a mistrial, then instructed the jurors to disregard the questioning about the supposed 1989 case.

Kessler insisted Miller’s directive wasn’t enough. Gantman concluded that it was.

She found that Kessler’s lawyer opened the door for the prosecutor’s question by asking Kessler if he had any criminal record. Still, the prosecutor should have provided official documentation of that alleged juvenile conviction, instead of just showing a handwritten note from the district attorney’s office, Gantman found. Miller’s corrective instruction to the jury should have taken care of the problem however, she concluded.

The prosecution’s evidence proved Kessler had lied on the gun purchase applications, Gantman found. “We are confident the jury verdict was sound,” she wrote.

Four months after he was convicted in the false statement case, another Schuylkill County jury acquitted Kessler of the terroristic threats charge that led to his arrest for lying while trying to buy the gun.

Kessler’s trials occurred after he achieved a controversial online notoriety for his YouTube videos.

He was suspended from his police chief job in 2013 after posting the videos that featured him making profane rants favoring gun ownership rights and shooting various types of firearms. Gilberton officials said he used the publicly-owned weapons without permission.

In 2014, Gilberton leaders struck a deal to pay Kessler a $30,000 severence settlement. They also abolished the town’s one-man police force.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.