Posted on 09/19/2007 12:34:59 PM PDT by SmithL
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 litigates an appeal.
“We’re just trying to get a bond pending appeal,’’ said his attorney, Robert C. Brooks. “We need time to get the transcripts.’’
Ford needs copies of trial transcripts — something that could cost taxpayers $8,000 or more — to see if procedural errors were made in his prosecution. A jury found him guilty in April of taking $55,000 in bribes in the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz undercover sting. Fords contends he was entrapped.
Brooks said sending Ford to prison now also would handicap his ability to prepare a defense against separate corruption charges he faces in Nashville. Ford will go to trial there Nov. 6, accused of concealing $800,000 he received from state contractors.
The prison Ford is headed to, the Federal Correctional Institution-La Tuna, is a minimum-security prison on the Texas-New Mexico border, about 12 miles north of El Paso.
(Excerpt) Read more at commercialappeal.com ...
Interesting approach, your honor my client cannot go to jail he's in too much trouble with the law.
Bring your own KY jelly Mr. Ford.
Kentucky makes jelly? what kind?
Not exactly. He will have some bootybuddies there for sure.
Wow they actually mentioned his party affiliation.
If a Democrat, no affiliation is mentioned. If a Republican, it appears in the headline.
La Tuna is a *very* nasty place to get sent to. Overcrowded and run by Latino gangs.
About time...wonder if his ex-mrs will vist him? But then again she may be in a local cell from her third DUI..BTW she was on probation from her second one...and had a 2 year old in the car to boot.
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