Maggio case's sentence date delayed twice

Length of time since plea unusual in Arkansas, 2 say

Ousted Circuit Judge Michael Maggio is shown in this file photo.
Ousted Circuit Judge Michael Maggio is shown in this file photo.

More than a year has passed since ousted Judge Michael Maggio pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge, but he still hasn't been sentenced -- a delay that two lawyers with knowledge of federal criminal law said is unusual.

Maggio's sentencing has been postponed twice since his plea Jan. 9, 2015. It is now scheduled for Feb. 26 before Judge Brian Miller in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. Originally, Maggio's sentencing was set for July 24. In June, it was postponed to Nov. 20 and now is set for February.

The online portion of the case file reflects no motions seeking the delays and gives no reason for them.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris declined to comment Friday when asked for the reasons behind the delays. Lauren White Hoover, Maggio's attorney, also declined to comment.

Such lengthy sentencing delays are unusual but not unheard of, said Ken Gallant, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law.

Defense attorney John Wesley Hall, who often practices law in federal court, agreed that the lengthy delay is unusual in Arkansas but said he has seen long delays in federal courts in other states.

"Here, the longest anybody goes is [usually] about six to seven months," Hall said. "The only thing it suggests to me is they're waiting for someone else to get charged."

Maggio's plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office and the U.S. Department of Justice implicated two other people -- a lobbyist and fundraiser, and the owner of a Faulkner County nursing home where a woman's death led to a negligence lawsuit.

The plea agreement did not identify the two people by name.

A lawsuit filed by the family of Martha Bull, a Perryville woman who died in Michael Morton's Greenbrier nursing home in 2008, is pending in Faulkner County Circuit Court in Conway against Morton and former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, a Republican lobbyist from Conway. Baker also helped raise money for Maggio's 2014 campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

The plea deal resulted from Maggio's handling of the previous negligence lawsuit filed by Bull's family against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Maggio admitted in his plea agreement that he lowered the Faulkner County jury's $5.2 million judgment in that case to $1 million in exchange for thousands of dollars in contributions to his appeals-court campaign.

The current lawsuit accuses Morton and Baker of conspiring to funnel donations to Maggio's campaign in exchange for a reduced judgment in the negligence lawsuit.

Morton and Baker have denied wrongdoing. They have not been charged with a crime. A federal investigation continues.

Baker attorneys Bud Cummins and Richard Watts did not return phone or email messages seeking comment.

Asked about the impact of the lengthy investigation, Morton spokesman Matt DeCample said, "Mr. Morton understands that he has no control over how long it continues and simply has to let the proceedings run their course."

In an email, DeCample said Morton has not appeared before a federal grand jury about the case. Morton also hasn't invoked the Fifth Amendment on any question posed to him during investigative interviews or depositions, DeCample added.

"The investigators have not shared who any of their targets are in their ongoing investigation," DeCample said.

Gallant said prosecutors don't have to advise people they are targets of a grand jury's investigation unless those people are being asked to testify before the grand jury.

Maggio, 54, could face up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Negotiated pleas often result in less-severe sentences in exchange for a defendant's cooperation and information about other people under investigation.

"It is true that one of the reasons that [such] cases can get delayed is that the lawyers are working on potential exchanges of information, meaning that a defendant may or may not have information that the prosecution might wish to use against" others, Gallant said. "They may be attempting to find that out."

Accompanying Maggio's plea agreement is a sealed plea agreement addendum.

Hall said prosecutors likely are "waiting for the other shoe to drop in the other cases." Hall said he believes prosecutors already have gotten everything they are going to get from Maggio, except for his testimony against others.

Gallant said that if the defense and the prosecution ask for a sentencing delay, a judge or a clerk is likely to "enter the order without a formal motion on the record."

The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio removed from his judicial office in September 2014. He already had been suspended from judicial duties as a result of other problems, including online comments about legally confidential court proceedings involving an adoption by actress Charlize Theron. Maggio has since surrendered his law license.

The delays in the federal case have led to a stalemate in the civil lawsuit as well.

In September, Special Circuit Judge David Laser filed an amended scheduling order based largely on Maggio's sentencing.

Laser set a discovery, or evidence-sharing, cutoff for 30 days after Maggio became available for depositions after his sentencing. In turn, Laser said the deadline for attorneys to file motions for summary judgment would be 30 days after the discovery cutoff, and that a motions hearing would be held about 60 days after the deadline for those motions.

State Desk on 01/24/2016

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