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Former state senator John Ford was assigned to maintenance duty today at the federal prison in Louisiana where he is serving a 5-year prison sentence for bribery. “He will be temporarily assigned to assist the dorm orderlies with sanitation in the dorms,” said Karen Million, spokesman for the Federal Prison Camp at Pollock, La. “After we have a chance to assess his skills, we may assign him to a different job assignment.” Ford, 65, who reported to the camp Monday afternoon, was convicted last year of taking $55,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents in the Tennessee Waltz investigation into...

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...

Former state senator John Ford entered the federal prison camp at Pollock, La., at 1:40 p.m. today. Ford, who was convicted last year of accepting $55,000 in bribes as a state legislator, is serving a 5-year at the prison, which is about 400 miles from Memphis. Prison spokesman Karen Million said Ford, prisoner No. 20286-076, will receive an orientation and a medical screening today and will be given a work assignment on Tuesday. Ford was convicted as part of an FBI undercover sting dubbed Operation Tennessee Waltz. He is the 10th defendant to be sent to prison. Two others received...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Tamara Mitchell-Ford was arrested in Collierville Tuesday night for driving under the influence and driving with a revoked license. It's the second time this year Mitchell-Ford, the ex-wife of former state senator John Ford, has been arrested in the suburb for drinking and driving. A Collierville police officer pulled Mitchell-Ford over on a routine traffic stop between 8 and 9 p.m. Tuesday on Poplar near Houston Levee, said Lt. Mike Moore. The police report wasn't completed late Tuesday so details were sketchy. Moore didn't know if a field sobriety test was conducted. A child riding with her was picked up...

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...