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NASHVILLE – A federal judge today rejected this newspaper’s motion to unseal records related to an FBI wiretap placed on then-state senator John Ford’s phone in 2005. In rejecting the request by The Commercial Appeal, U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell said he must balance a range of conflicting interests, including Ford’s right to a fair trial. The Memphis Democrat is set to stand trial here Nov. 6 on six public corruption charges. “There’s a whole witches’ brew of things that have to be balanced,’’ Campbell said. The judge said he also weighed the public’s right to open courts and privacy...

Judge rules government wiretaps in Waltz sting can be used in Nashville trial -- Former state senator John Ford lost a round Tuesday in Nashville where he's fighting federal corruption charges. A judge rejected Ford's motion to suppress wiretap evidence, giving a green light to prosecutors to use secret recordings of the Memphis Democrat's phone calls at his trial next month. U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell dismissed arguments by Ford's lawyer that the government improperly used a wiretap in its Memphis-based Tennessee Waltz sting to build a separate criminal case against Ford in Nashville. In the Waltz sting, Ford, 65,...

Foreclosure sale on East Memphis house now owned by his ex-wife -- Few things stir as much passion or evoke more sentimentality over the American Dream as a home. So when this two-story brick home goes on the auction block this morning, it will not only shatter one homeowner's personal dream but also deliver a wrecking ball to a Memphis political icon -- former state senator John Ford. Ford's former East Memphis home, now held exclusively by his ex-wife, is in foreclosure and is set to be sold to the highest bidder at 11 a.m. on the steps of the...

John Ford will not have to report to prison on Oct. 17 as scheduled. The former state senator was granted additional time this morning for his appellate attorney to obtain and review several thousand pages of transcripts from his bribery trial. Ford, 65, who was convicted in April of taking $55,00 in bribes as a state legislator, was sentenced last month to 5 ½ years to be served in a federal prison near El Paso, Texas. U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen, however, continued the report date and set a hearing for Nov. 28 to determine whether he Ford...

NASHVILLE — Days after news broke in 2005 that then-state Sen. John Ford was taking huge payments from a state contractor, his brother warned him he could be facing criminal charges, according to wiretap evidence released today in federal court here. Former congressman Harold Ford Sr. told John Ford as federal agents listened in on a Feb. 14, 2005, phone call that once a grand jury begins looking at the payments from a TennCare contractor, “it’s all over.’’ “I mean that TennCare thing got to be the most explosive thing in the world,’’ Harold Ford told his brother. “... I...

Former state senator John Ford, who was convicted of bribery last month, has been ordered to report Oct. 17 to the federal prison in Anthony, Texas. The order of surrender was issued this week, a month after U.S. Dist. Judge J. Daniel Breen had sentenced Ford to 66 months. With good behavior, he could get out in about four and a half years. Yet Ford, 65, a savvy Memphis Democrat who dominated the city’s legislative delegation for three decades, has one more card to play. Ford faces an Oct. 1 hearing, when he will ask to remain free while he...

NASHVILLE - Attorney and former Sen. Ward Crutchfield, who pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last month, won't be practicing anytime soon in Tennessee after being formally disbarred by the state Supreme Court. In the order issued Monday, Justice Janice M. Holder wrote that the 78-year-old Chattanooga Democrat "has consented to disbarment because he cannot successfully defend himself against the charges under investigation and has discontinued the practice of law." Under court rules, Crutchfield can apply for reinstatement in five years, but Jones wrote he would have to "prove by clear and convincing evidence" that he has the moral...

A day after he was sentenced to 51/2 years in prison, former state senator John Ford and his newly appointed attorney were already working on an appeal. Ford asked a judge Wednesday to order taxpayers to finance copies of trial transcripts needed for his expected appeal -- a request that could cost $8,000 or more. The filing seeks a speedy production of the transcripts and signals that Ford will ask for a seldom-granted bond that would keep him out of prison until the appeal is resolved. "Every case is different,'' said Ford's new attorney, Robert C. Brooks, sizing up his...

"When I do quit, I'm going to go out on top. And I guarantee you when I leave the Senate, the Senate will not be the same and everybody in the Senate will know that.'' -- State Sen. John Ford, 1994 It didn't end quite the way John Ford had expected. The former state senator emerged from the federal courthouse Tuesday in Downtown Memphis a beaten man. Sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for taking bribes, the once-mighty Memphis Democrat appeared shaken and frail. The self-proclaimed "Man Who Makes the Deals,'' the in-your-face head of the Ford political...

Judge not convinced Ford truly believes he did anything wrong - John Ford was sentenced to 66 months in prison this morning for his April conviction of accepting $55,000 in bribes in the FBI's Tennessee Waltz public corruption investigation. U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen carefully noted his interpretation of advisory federal guidelines that suggest enhanced punishment for factors such as the amount and number of bribes, threatening witnesses, acceptance of responsibility and the fact that Ford was an elected official. The judge said he was not convinced that Ford truly believes he did anything wrong and that the...

John Ford made an emotional plea to a federal judge for leniency this afternoon in a sentencing hearing for his bribery conviction. The hearing adjourned at 6:20 p.m. after almost four hours of arguments by attorneys and testimony from character witnesses, including state legislators, community leaders and family members. The hearing will resume tomorrow morning, when U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen will sentence Ford, a once-powerful legislator who now has thrown himself on the mercy of the court. "I talk too much," the 65-year-old Ford told the judge, gripping a podium. "That's been a problem, but it's in...

Character witnesses testifying on John Ford's behalf asked a federal judge this afternoon to show leniency in sentencing the former state senator. Ford, 65, who was convicted in April of taking $55,000 in bribes, faces up to 10 years in prison. His defense says the amount should be no more than a year or two. "He's a fun guy and hard working," said retired state representative Alvin King. "You could depend on John. He was the go-to person. He was an outstanding legislator. He got a lot of things passed." Turning to U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen, King...

She knew this day would come, when her notorious ex-husband would stand before a judge and face the cold bars of prison. Convicted of bribery, former state senator John Ford could get up to 10 years in a federal penitentiary when he's sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen. Still, it comes as a shock to Tamara Mitchell-Ford, who married her mercurial husband at the height of his success. "You had a man in a position of power that abused it,'' said Mitchell-Ford. John Ford was power personified. The very name chilled backs and tightened guts in...

CHATTANOOGA — Four of five lawmakers convicted in the federal Tennessee Waltz corruption sting will still collect state pensions. They are eligible for the pensions because they joined the state retirement system before the law was changed to strip convicted lawmakers of the benefit. The four former state senators and the amounts of their monthly pensions are: —Ward Crutchfield, D-Chattanooga: $3,500. —John Ford, D-Memphis: $2,700. —Roscoe Dixon, D-Memphis: $1,456. —Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis: $1,000. The fifth lawmaker convicted in the sting, former Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland, is not eligible for a pension because he joined the system in 1997, four years...

First, John Ford wore the $70,000 Rolex watch, showing off the diamond-encrusted timepiece to his friends, including one undercover federal agent. Then the feds took possession of the watch and are now hoping to keep it, claiming the Rolex was an "ill-gotten gain" received through criminal activities. Now, add another person to the list of people who covet the watch. Ford's ex-wife said Sunday that she plans to sue to keep the watch, claiming her ex-husband promised the Rolex three years ago in lieu of child-support payments. "When it comes down to that watch, I want to know how somebody...

MEMPHIS — Federal prosecutors are trying to keep a diamond-studded Rolex wristwatch seized from former Sen. John Ford before he was convicted of bribery in the Tennessee Waltz corruption investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court that Ford got the watch valued at $70,000 from a Memphis developer through bribery and it should be forfeited to the government. The Rolex “constitutes or is derived from proceeds of an offense constituting ’specified unlawful activity’ ... or a conspiracy to commit such an offense, specifically bribery,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher E. Cotten wrote in the...

An emotional Calvin Williams, once a top aide for the Shelby County Commission, apologized Friday for letting down those who have supported him over the years, but maintained he had done nothing wrong despite his conviction on bribery and extortion charges. U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel H. Mays Jr. disagreed, however, and sentenced him to 33 months in prison for accepting a $1,500 bribe to influence a 2002 urban renewal grant application. Advertisement Mays called Williams "a good person who's done a really stupid thing, but the stupid thing is a very serious crime. Mr. Williams made a series of...

NASHVILLE - The state Capitol that John Ford left after his arrest in a nearby hotel on the morning of May 26, 2005, is a different place now than it was during his 31 years in the Senate. His former colleagues agreed that most of the changes are a direct legacy of his troubles with the law. Some lawmakers still flock to nightly receptions at area hotels put on by scores of statewide associations and packed with their members from back home anxious to meet with their representatives. Many of the 517 registered lobbyists still crowd the Capitol corridors trying...

Following a 13-day trial that included video recordings of former state Sen. John Ford receiving cash payments from an FBI undercover agent, a 12-person jury found the Memphis Democrat guilty on one count of bribery. The jury deadlocked on an extortion charge. He was acquitted of all three charges of intimidation. The bribery charge carries up to 10 years in prison. Using an FBI sham company called E-Cycle Management, which claimed to be in the business of recycling computers, undercover lawmen operating in Tennessee Waltz bribed elected officials to draft, sponsor and change legislation that benefited E-Cycle. He will be...

fter more than four hours of deliberation, jurors in former state Sen. John Ford’s public corruption trial went home Wednesday without a verdict. The jury’s brief status conference late Wednesday afternoon with U.S. Dist. Judge J. Daniel Breen indicated the 12 men and women are reviewing the secretly recorded audio and video made during the undercover phase of Tennessee Waltz. During the trial, lawyers for the prosecution and defense presented to the jury the video and audio recordings with an on-screen transcript that moved line by line as they recordings progressed. Advertisement But that is not what jurors were given...