Indicted lobbyist Milton Russell "Rusty" Cranford, 56, of Bentonville was denied bail Thursday in part because a U.S. magistrate in Springfield, Mo., found allegations of a murder-for-hire plot credible.
"The court finds that the defendant attempted to obstruct justice by attempting to persuade prospective witnesses to provide false information to investigators," U.S. Magistrate David P. Rush said in his ruling Thursday. "More importantly, the court finds that defendant attempted to enlist the assistance of a third party to murder a witness."
A federal grand jury in Springfield indicted Cranford on Feb. 20 on one count of conspiracy and eight counts of accepting bribes in an alleged kickback and bribery scheme. Cranford, head of the Cranford Coalition lobbying firm in Little Rock, was also an executive overseeing Arkansas operations of Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield Mo. until January of last year.
He pleaded not guilty. Cranford is set for trial May 7 in Springfield.
Philadelphia-based lobbyist Donald "D.A." Jones, was the subject of a request for murder made by Cranford to a felon, the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield claims. No charges in the murder-for-hire investigation have been filed. That investigation is still in progress in Arkansas, according to federal authorities.
Cranford is accused of arranging the hiring of Jones in 2011 by as-yet unnamed executives within Preferred Family. Jones was hired to lobby Congress to provide more money to Preferred Family. Nonprofit corporations receiving federal taxpayer money through programs such as Medicaid are forbidden to lobby for more. The $973,807 paid to Jones between early 2011 and January 2017 was embezzled from the nonprofit group, according to the government's case.
Cranford was charged with taking kickbacks from Jones in return for getting and keeping Jones' lobbying agreement.
Jones told Cranford in November he was going to cooperate with investigators, according to the government's case. Jones told investigators Cranford tried to get Jones to agree to lie about Cranford's involvement, according to federal accounts in Cranford's case. Jones refused, according to court records.
Jones then pleaded guilty Dec. 18 to one count of conspiring to defraud Preferred Family. After the guilty plea, federal investigators claim, Cranford arranged a meeting with a felon who was a longtime acquaintance of Cranford's family.
The felon Cranford approached turned out to be an FBI informant who notified authorities of an upcoming meeting, according to the government's case as presented to Rush in a March 16 hearing.
Authorities recorded Cranford at the felon's home near Texarkana, case records show. According to a transcript of the Jan. 9 recording, Cranford said in part: "He's in Philadelphia. He's in south Jersey. (Whispered) He needs to go away. He needs to be gone." Since those events, the felon involved has been moved at federal expense, according to authorities in Missouri.
Cranford's attorney, Nathan Garrett of Kansas City, Mo., argued the murder-for-hire accusation was absurd. The government would never have left Cranford free for the six weeks from the talk with the felon on Jan. 9 to Cranford's arrest on Feb. 21 if it believed its own allegation, Garrett told Rush. The only purpose of denying bail, Garrett argued at the hearing, is to increase the pressure on Cranford, an alleged conspirator the government has been trying to get to talk for years.
Garrett said Thursday neither he nor Cranford have any comment on Thursday's ruling.
Cranford also tried to influence the testimony of former Arkansas state Sen. Henry "Hank" Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, an assistant U.S. attorney said at the March hearing. Wilkins is willing to testify he accepted $100,000 in bribes and was asked by Cranford not to admit it, the assistant U.S. attorney said.
NW News on 03/30/2018