Free Republic

The girlfriend of former State Senator and convicted felon John Ford is working for the city. Connie Mathews, who has two children by Ford, is an assistant library cataloger at the Memphis Public Library and Information Center. Mathews, who began her job Nov. 10, works at the Central Library on Poplar and has an annual salary of $28,580. Mathews, who has a background in banking and finance, is known locally for her run-ins with Ford’s ex-wife, Tamara Mitchell Ford. In 2001, Mitchell-Ford drove her silver Jaguar into the Collierville home Mathews shared with Ford. Ford was the marquee defendant in...

Feds not yet ready to call probe finished - The long-running undercover FBI investigation known as Tennessee Waltz resulted in trials that took up much of the last few years. While the last convicted official recently began serving time, others already have been released or finished their probation. Former state senator John Ford, who has the longest sentence, is not expected to be released until 2013. Spawned from a 2002 low-level scandal in the Shelby County Juvenile Court Clerk's office, the case snowballed into a statewide public corruption probe that eventually led to criminal charges filed against a dozen elected...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This month's trial of former state Sen. John Ford on corruption charges could last up to a month. Ford is accused of taking $800,000 in consultant payments from TennCare contractors to promote those private companies' interests with the state's expanded Medicaid program. Ford was known for his flashy attire when he was a lawmaker. On Monday he was led into court in a dark green jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was convicted earlier this year of taking $55,000 in bribes during the unrelated federal Tennessee Waltz investigation and is serving a 5 1/2...

News Channel 3 has confirmed the Internal Revenue Service is after former Senator and current prisoner, John Ford. The IRS says Ford owes more than 220,000 in unpaid federal income taxes. The IRS would not comment on specifics but did say the taxes are from 2003, 2004 and 2005. Ford is currently in a federal prison on bribery charges prosecuted under Operation Tennessee Waltz. Ford is serving 5 years in prison. A June 24 trial is set for Ford in Nashville on allegations he took $800,000 in illegal payments.

A psychologist raised in Frayser and trained in South America, Morgan had been rejected twice by the state's psychology licensing board because of his academic record. But Morgan found a powerful ally in then-state Sen. John Ford, who pushed through legislation that forced regulators to hand Morgan a license to practice, according to an examination by The Commercial Appeal. That carefully tailored 1998 law has privately troubled psychology professionals for years yet remained unknown to the larger public. The newspaper uncovered the matter following Morgan's indictment last month. Federal prosecutors contend Morgan offered Ford money in 2005 for legislation that...

. . .See no evil -- House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has found the perfect solution to the legislature’s sleazy ethics. He’s covering his eyes.On the day former Sen. John Ford entered federal prison for taking bribes in the “Tennessee Waltz” scandal, House Democrats killed a bill to revoke state health insurance benefits for lawmakers convicted of felonies involving their office.Sen. Charles Curtiss, the bill’s sponsor, said, “In my mind, we ought to be held to a higher standard.” But apparently not in Naifeh’s mind.Later, the mighty speaker dismissed the possibility that killing the bill hurts Democrats’ public image. He didn’t...

Michael Hooks Jr. has been ordered to report to a federal prison facility in Mississippi in two weeks to serve his 30-day sentence for fraud. Hooks, 33, pleaded guilty in January to accepting $1,500 in fees for consulting work at Juvenile Court in 2001 for work he did not do. The small-scale scam led to a wide-reaching public corruption investigation dubbed the Tennessee Waltz that resulted in convictions of nearly a dozen elected officials going to prison. Among them was his father, Michael Hooks Sr., a former Shelby County commissioner who is serving a 26-month federal prison sentence in Alabama...

5 1/2-year sentence is result of bribes taken in Tennessee Waltz sting - MEMPHIS - The Rolex watches, fancy suits and plush hotels are all things of the past for former state Sen. John Ford.Ford, 65, reported Monday to a federal prison camp in Louisiana to begin a 5 1/2-year sentence for taking $55,000 in bribes during the FBI's statewide corruption sting called Tennessee Waltz.Once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, Ford was known as a flashy dresser with a taste for fine dining and expensive hotels.At the prison camp, he will have half of a double bunk in...

MEMPHIS, TN - Former State Senator John Ford is scheduled to report to federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana on Monday, April 28, 2008. Ford was convicted in April 2007 on bribery charges; he took more than $55,000 to influence votes in the Tennessee legislature. Ford was indicted during an FBI undercover operation, "Operation Tennessee Waltz," which worked to expose public corruption. The United States Penitentiary in Pollock is a high-security facility in central Louisiana, which houses male offender. A satellite prison camp located next to the main facility houses minimum security offenders. The prison is surrounded by the Kisatchie National...

Corruption probe triggered what may turn out to be substantial change in the political culture - The last strains of the Tennessee Waltz public corruption investigation played here this week with the sentencing of Michael Hooks Jr. for his role in a bogus invoice scam in the Juvenile Court Clerk's Office. Hooks, who drew 30 days in federal prison, was the 12th and final Waltz defendant to learn what medicine he would have to take after tasting the toxic brew that state and local politics had become. The wrap-up of the Tennessee Waltz case should serve as a transition to...

Cohen intervenes to request change of prison from Texas to Louisiana -- WASHINGTON -- Former state senator John Ford is going to the big house next month, but after the intervention of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, it will be much closer to Memphis. Cohen confirmed Thursday that his office made a request to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to look into changing Ford's incarceration from a minimum-security federal-prison camp at La Tuna, Texas, to a similar facility in central Louisiana. Ford, 65, is to surrender to federal authorities next month to begin serving a 5 1/2-year sentence after his conviction...

John Ford must report to prison in 60 days, U.S. District Court Judge J. Daniel Breen decided this morning. Ford, 65, has been assigned to a federal lockup near El Paso, Texas. Ford, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for taking $55,000 in bribes as a legislator, looked grim as Breen announced his decision. “Mr. Ford just said ‘Let’s move forward on the appeal,’ ” said his court-appointed appellate attorney, Robert Brooks. “He’s a very practical man. He understands life and its ups and downs.” On Wednesday, Ford argued he needed to delay his imprisonment because he needed...

John Ford fought federal prosecutors to a standoff this morning and will avoid prison for at least one more day. U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen ordered Ford’s attorney to find out when Ford’s ex-wife Tamara Mitchell Ford will be released from a DUI sentence she is serving in Collierville. Breen will continue the hearing at 9 Thursday morning. The former state senator was sentenced last August to serve five and one-half years in prison for bribery, but has remained free because he says there will be no one else to care for his four children if both parents...

Former state senator Kathryn Bowers was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison on Thursday for accepting $11,500 in bribes. Bowers will also be subject to two years of supervised release, although no fine was assessed. She will report to prison at an undetermined date. Bowers, 64, read a brief statement before U.S. Dist. Judge J. Daniel Breen in which she called her crime a "very, very, very bad decision." "I ask for forgiveness of my bad decisions of receiving money in an inappropriate manner," her statement read. "I am indeed sorry. If I had it to do over again,...

John Ford will be home for Christmas. The former state senator, who was scheduled to report to a federal prison Dec. 12, was granted a delay until at least Feb. 27 by U.S. Dist. Court Judge J. Daniel Breen in serving his 66-month prison sentence for bribery. Ford's attorney argued that reporting to prison near El Paso, Texas, would create a hardship in preparing for a March 4 bribery trial in Nashville. He also said Ford is the custodial parent and sole provider for his four minor children - ages 2 to 15 - while his ex-wife, Tamara Mitchell-Ford, is...

John Ford will ask a federal judge today to delay serving his 66-month prison sentence for bribery until either after his Nashville trial is completed next year or until his ex-wife is released from jail where she is serving a drunken-driving sentence. The former state senator is scheduled to report Dec. 12 to a federal prison facility near El Paso, Texas, but he said that would create a hardship in preparing for his March 4 bribery trial in Nashville. Ford, in papers filed in federal court, also said he is the custodial parent and sole provider for his four minor...

CHATTANOOGA — Democrat Andy Berke won a special election Thursday to replace former state Sen. Ward Crutchfield, who resigned from the General Assembly earlier this year after pleading guilty to a federal bribery charge in the Tennessee Waltz corruption sting. According to unofficial results with 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Berke, an attorney, had 9,790 votes to 5,747 votes for businessman Oscar Brock, a Republican and son of former U.S. Sen. Bill Brock. The results, 63 percent to 37 percent, leave the makeup of the state Senate unchanged: 16 Republicans, 16 Democrats and one independent, Mike Williams of Maynardville....

A Wisconsin woman who is suing the dental firm that allegedly paid John Ford kickbacks to obtain a lucrative TennCare contract is seeking more than 22,000 pages of legal documents from the former state senator. Marie Kasten, whose ex-husband was the head of Doral Dental USA, asked a Shelby County Circuit Court this week to find Ford in contempt for not turning over the documents relating to Ford's dealings with Doral. Doral won a multi-million-dollar contract to provide dental services to poor children under Tennessee's Medicaid program known as TennCare. In a six-count federal indictment in Nashville, Ford is accused...

A sentencing hearing for longtime Democratic lawmaker Ward Crutchfield of Chattanooga has been reset to Jan. 17 while his attorneys gather more medical information that could affect his bribery sentence. Crutchfield, 78, who was to be sentenced here later this month, was among a dozen elected state or local officials or their aides indicted in the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz undercover investigation into public corruption. He was charged with taking a share of $12,000 in bribes in return for his legislative influence. Crutchfield pleaded guilty in July to one count involving a $3,000 cash payment from an undercover FBI agent in...

NASHVILLE — A federal judge today agreed to postpone the latest trial of former state Sen. John Ford until March to give his defense more time to pore over thousands of documents. Ford is accused of taking $800,000 in consultant payments from private contractors with TennCare while using his position as a state senator to promote those contractors’ interests. The Memphis Democrat’s attorney, Isaiah Gant, said he did not have enough time to review thousands of pages of legislative history in time for the trial that had been scheduled to begin early next month. U.S. District Todd J. Campbell agreed...