Former Judge Michael Maggio has asked a federal court to order his release from prison while his effort to overturn his bribery conviction is pending.
"Maggio is a model inmate having no violations since entry into the [U.S.] Bureau of Prisons in the summer of 2016," Maggio's attorney, James Hensley Jr., wrote in a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. "Maggio has always followed the orders of this and every Court. Should he be granted release, he will continue to do so.
"Maggio is willing to post a bond in sufficient amount to ensure his appearance," Hensley added.
Maggio, 57, asked the court in October to release him from prison because he contended his original lawyer, Lauren Hoover, gave him ineffective counsel by misleading him, withholding information from him and pressuring him to plead guilty to the federal bribery charge in 2015.
A former judge for the 20th Judicial Circuit in Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties, Maggio is serving a 10-year sentence at the Big Sandy U.S. Penitentiary in Kentucky.
The release motion, filed Nov. 19, said Maggio's family, including his wife, Dawn, will help him pending resolution of his case.
"No harm will come to any party with Michael A. Maggio being released pending preview of the Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus," Hensley wrote. "His case does not involve any act of danger to any party."
According to Hensley, "Several issues arose during the plea [process] that made it likely, notwithstanding the guilty plea, Mr. Maggio could have been exonerated."
"There is a likelihood that Mr. Maggio's Petition will be successful considering his plea was taken before any charges were filed, offers were not followed, and the plea was entered without little review of the law and facts as it relates to this case and other issues," Hensley added.
"There is no other remedy by which Mr. Maggio may seek relief," Hensley said.
In his plea agreement, Maggio admitted lowering a Faulkner County jury's judgment in a negligence lawsuit from $5.2 million to $1 million in exchange for thousands of dollars in indirect campaign donations.
The lawsuit was filed over the 2008 death of Martha Bull, 76, of Perryville at a Greenbrier nursing home owned by Fort Smith businessman Michael Morton. On July 8, 2013, Morton signed off on thousands of dollars in donations to several political action committees. On July 10, 2013, Maggio slashed the judgment.
Morton has said he intended for the PAC donations to go to Maggio's campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, and some did. Maggio later withdrew from that race.
Morton and another person implicated by Maggio in the plea agreement -- former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway -- have denied wrongdoing and have not been charged with a crime. The agreement did not identify Morton or Baker by name.
Maggio unsuccessfully sought to withdraw his guilty plea before he was sentenced.
In early November, U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said his office would file a written response to Maggio's petition to get his case overturned "at the appropriate time."
State Desk on 11/27/2018