GARY | Former Gary School Corp. security supervisor Dwayne Haskins spent 18 months in prison for selling a gun to a felon right in front of Roosevelt High School, where he worked in 2003.

But now that he's done serving the time, Haskins wants his conviction overturned on the grounds that authorities manipulated the videotape of what they called his "confession" and that his defense attorney failed to object to the video.

"I just think it's a travesty and a shame that prosecutors go to such lengths and extreme circumstances," Haskins said Friday. "They don't realize the damage they're doing to families. It's ridiculous."

Acting U.S. Attorney David Capp said he stands behind the prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean Lanter, saying Haskins' allegations are false.

"We deny it, and we'll respond accordingly by July 18, as per the court order," Capp said.

Haskins admits he sold a .40-caliber Baretta pistol to a man named Darryl Eller. Eller, a former Gary cop who at the time was a convicted felon, was wearing a wire for federal investigators.

Haskins and Eller worked as security guards together at Dena's Pub in Gary. Eller testified he told his co-workers, including Haskins, he was a felon because his arrest for impersonating a police officer in 1999 was publicized in local media.

On Friday, Haskins said he did not know Eller was a felon when he sold him the gun, which would have been illegal because felons are prohibited from owning guns.

"If I would have thought he was a felon, I never would have dealt with him," Haskins said Friday.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Haskins' pleas of ignorance that Eller was a felon in a Dec. 26 opinion.

"There are several pieces of evidence from which the jury could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Haskins knew Eller had a felony conviction," the appeals judges wrote.

That evidence included Haskins' taped statements that he knew Eller was a felon "the first time I met him" and that Haskins is heard on a recording offering to buy Eller another gun any time he needed one, the appeals judges wrote.

But Haskins says he was the victim of vindictive prosecutors, who were only upset that he had refused to wear a wire in another investigation.

"I told (the agents), 'You can kiss my ass, I'm not going to wear a wire for them,'" Haskins said. "Then three weeks later they indicted me."

Haskins said authorities edited the video of that conversation -- which included his admission of selling the gun to Eller -- before jurors in his trial saw it, thus hiding evidence that would have helped his defense.