Arkansas judge convicted of bribery granted pauper status by U.S. court
By Steve Barnes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - A former Arkansas judge convicted of receiving bribes in exchange for lowering the damages awarded in a civil suit will appeal his 10-year prison sentence, but at taxpayer expense, officials said on Friday.
The same federal judge who last week sentenced former judge Michael Maggio, on Thursday granted the defendant’s motion that he be declared a pauper, court officials said. This exempts him from the standard court fees and makes him eligible for a court-appointed attorney.
Maggio, 54, a former state district judge, admitted in a plea deal reached in 2015 to receiving bribes in exchange for reducing a $5.2 million judgment in a civil negligence case against a nursing home company to $1 million, according to court papers.
The bribes, in the form of $50,000 in campaign contributions, were received between February 2013 and mid-2014.
Maggio's petition for pauper status said he had worked for minimal wages at menial jobs since being stripped of his judgeship in 2014 by the Arkansas Supreme Court in an unrelated matter and essentially had no assets other than his home and a 13-year-old automobile.
Defense attorney James Hensley Jr. said he would continue as Maggio’s counsel but was uncertain if he would seek payment from the court.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of up to 63 months in cases such as Maggio’s but U.S. District Judge Brian Miller of Little Rock declared the penalty inadequate and ordered Maggio to serve 120 months.
"A dirty judge is more harmful to society than a dope dealer," Miller said during sentencing, noting that he routinely orders lengthy prison terms for narcotics offenders.
Maggio was removed from office in September 2014 after admitting he disclosed information about the adoption of a child by Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron, which was handled by another judge in the state.
At the time Maggio was a candidate for a state appeals court.
(Reporting by Steve Barnes, writing by Jon Herskovitz, editing by Tom Brown)
