Morton's gift to UCA a 'payoff,' suit says

CONWAY -- Nursing-home owner Michael Morton donated $100,000 to the University of Central Arkansas Foundation via former UCA executive Gilbert Baker as a "payoff" for Baker's purported role as a "middle-man" in a judicial bribery case, an amended lawsuit made public Tuesday claims.

The complaint, filed on behalf of former nursing-home patient Martha Bull's estate, says Baker -- who at the time was executive assistant to UCA President Tom Courtway -- had asked Morton for the university gift.

"Prior to this donation, Defendant Morton had never made a donation to UCA," it adds.

"Upon information and belief, this donation was Defendant Baker's payoff from Defendant Morton, in part, for his role as the middle-man in the conspiracy and bribery scheme," says the amended complaint, filed late Monday and placed online Tuesday.

In an email Tuesday, Morton spokesman Matt DeCample said, "The allegations in the amended complaint are baseless and untrue, but since this is ongoing litigation, the specific details of our response will come through our filing with the Court."

Neither Baker nor his civil attorney, Richard Watts, returned phone and email requests for comment.

The lawsuit says the "anonymous" gift -- a check dated July 8, 2013 -- was sent to Baker's Conway home, as were checks to several political action committees.

The lawsuit notes that Morton has said it was his understanding the PAC donations were for then-Judge Michael Maggio's since-halted campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Baker helped raise money for that campaign.

Also July 8, 2013, attorneys for Morton's Greenbrier nursing home asked Maggio to reduce a Faulkner County Circuit Court jury's $5.2 million verdict against the facility in a negligence lawsuit resulting from Bull's death in 2008. Two days later, July 10, Maggio slashed the sum to $1 million.

In September 2014, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio removed from office over an unrelated issue. He has since pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge related to the PAC contributions and awaits sentencing in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

In his plea agreement, Maggio admitted to taking PAC money in exchange for lowering a multimillion-dollar lawsuit judgment. The agreement identified other participants in the purported bribery scheme as Individual A, a nursing-home owner, and Individual B, a fundraiser for Maggio, but did not give their names.

Attorney Thomas Buchanan, who filed the Bull family's lawsuit, said Tuesday that he believes Morton and Baker are the unidentified individuals.

Neither Morton nor Baker has been charged with a crime.

In March 2014, after news reports surfaced about Morton's PAC donations and Baker's ties to the PACs, UCA returned Morton's $100,000 gift.

Baker, a former state senator, soon resigned his executive job at the university and became a music professor with an $82,000 pay cut. He has worked as a lobbyist this semester while on unpaid leave from UCA.

In a related development, former state Rep. Ann Clemmer, a former Republican congressional candidate, has confirmed to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the FBI has interviewed her about the criminal case.

She did not want to discuss details of the interview but said the FBI told her it was for "background" information. Clemmer is now the Arkansas Department of Higher Education's senior associate director of academic affairs.

In the civil case, the amended complaint put online Tuesday is far more detailed than the original one filed in November.

The amended complaint does not name Maggio as a defendant in light of Special Judge David Laser's recent ruling that judicial immunity protects Maggio from a civil lawsuit over his decision lowering the judgment in the negligence lawsuit.

The new version says either Baker or someone who worked for his political-consulting firm dropped off Morton's PAC checks at the office of Little Rock attorney and PAC creator Chris Stewart on July 19, 2013. At a time that the lawsuit does not specify, "Baker personally delivered the PAC contributions to Maggio's campaign," it says.

The lawsuit calls Morton and Baker "conspirators" and says their actions, "under the color of law," subjected the Bull family to the deprivation of rights, including those provided under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act. It also accuses both men of abuse of public trust, a felony under Arkansas law.

"Defendant Morton agreed to confer a donation to the University of Central Arkansas, where Defendant Baker worked, as a payoff to Defendant Baker for funneling the money and influence into Maggio's campaign with the understanding or agreement that Maggio, as a judge and public servant, would give a decision, opinion, or recommendation favorable" to Morton and/or his Greenbrier nursing home in the Bull case, the complaint says.

State Desk on 04/15/2015

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