Former state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, who was indicted June 5 on federal charges of extortion and accepting a bribe, tried unsuccessfully to avoid attending her plea and arraignment scheduled for later this week in a Little Rock courtroom, according to a document filed Monday.
The document indicates that Shoffner signed a waiver June 9 agreeing to forgo her right to appear publicly before a judge Thursday to formally enter a plea to the 14 charges contained in the indictment. Waivers are commonly requested and granted for defendants who are facing superseding, or follow-up, indictments, because they have in most cases already appeared for plea and arraignment on the original indictment.
Shoffner, 68, first appeared in a Little Rock federal courtroom on May 20 for an initial appearance, just two days after her arrest by FBI agents at her Newport home.
At the time, she was being held on a criminal complaint, a charging document based on probable cause that is used to hold defendants until the next regular meeting of the federal grand jury. Because she hadn’t yet been indicted by the grand jury, however, she didn’t enter a plea at the time.
Her formal plea and arraignment was scheduled for this week after she was indicted on six counts of extortion, one count of attempted extortion and seven counts of accepting a bribe in her capacity as a federal official.
The charges accuse her of accepting six $6,000 payments from mid-2010 through the date of her arrest from an unnamed broker to whom she in turn gave a large share of the state’s bond business.
On May 31, the Friday before the grand jury began its regular monthly meeting to consider indictment requests from federal prosecutors, Shoffner appeared before U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes to waive indictment and plead guilty to a single extortion charge.
The judge refused to accept the plea, however, after Shoffner refused to admit to all the “elements” of the crime, to verify that she had the intent to commit a crime when she accepted the payments.
For example, while admitting she took money from the broker, she said, “It was offered. I didn’t demand it.”
Asked if she directed state business to broker, she replied, “Not intentionally.” She also denied that her receipt of the money had anything to do with her elected position.
After the plea deal foundered, defense attorney Chuck Banks of Little Rock said Shoffner was looking forward to being indicted and going to trial to fight the charges.
In asking to sit out her formal plea and arraignment on the charges that followed after a meeting of the grand jury, Shoffner tried to tender an innocent plea in her written waiver of appearance.
The request, however, was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe, who on Friday simply checked a box on a form denying her attempt to enter her plea without being present.
Though signed Friday, the form wasn’t publicly filed until Monday morning.
Shoffner is scheduled for her plea and arraignment at 10 a.m. Thursday in Volpe’s Little Rock courtroom.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/25/2013