Chief U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller has rejected a request for drug addiction treatment from Mark Anthony Jones, a former Little Rock police officer who is serving an 8 1/2-year prison sentence for helping escort a load of marijuana across the city in 2012, while on duty and in uniform.
Jones filed a motion Aug. 12 asking that the judge amend a 2013 presentence report to indicate that Jones was addicted to painkillers before his May 2012 arrest. Jones said the report, prepared by the U.S. probation office to aid the judge in Jones' sentencing, didn't include that information because, as a police officer, Jones "was reluctant" to share that information.
Jones, who is in a federal prison camp in Montgomery, Ala., said he has been refused entry into a drug and alcohol program at the prison camp "because of the omission of his abuse and addiction to painkiller medication in addition to his alcohol intake."
Jones said family members and friends could provide sworn affidavits "attesting to his continued use and addiction to pain medication since June 2011," should the court require them.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Gardner, who prosecuted Jones on a corruption charge to which he pleaded guilty, asked that the motion be denied. She said Jones wasn't employed by the Little Rock Police Department when the presentence report was prepared, "and could not have suffered prejudice by disclosing an addiction to pain killers."
She also argued, "Completion of the residential drug treatment program offered by the Bureau of Prisons often results in a defendant receiving a reduction in sentence. The United States submits that the defendant's belated request to modify his presentence report is to take advantage of the reduced prison time, rather than a need for residential drug treatment."
In denying Jones' request, Miller noted, "Other than Jones's untimely statements, nothing discovered before, during, or after trial indicates that he has ever had problems with drug abuse."
Ex-Hog OK'd to get brain-injury therapy
A federal judge has granted a request from former University of Arkansas and NFL running back Cedric Cobbs, 34, to travel to the Crosby Center in Escondido, Calif., for treatment of a possible brain injury stemming from his participation in collegiate and professional football.
On July 16, while Cobbs was free on bond on a federal charge of selling oxycodone pills in 2013, he was arrested by Pulaski County sheriff's deputies on a misdemeanor charge of promoting prostitution.
Deputies said Cobbs drove a woman to a Little Rock hotel where the woman had arranged to have sex with a man who turned out to be an undercover officer. They reported finding a methamphetamine pipe in the center console of Cobbs' car, and said the woman was in possession of pills, a meth pipe and a ledger.
The arrest prompted federal prosecutors to file a motion July 27 to have Cobbs' bond revoked until his Nov. 30 jury trial. Prosecutors had first sought to revoke Cobbs' bond last year, after he failed several drug tests, but the court allowed him to remain free.
On Aug. 5, defense attorney Jonathan Lane filed a motion asking that Cobbs be allowed to go to The Crosby Center, "the leading center for the treatment of conditions resulting from sports-related concussion and brain injury." Lane said "initial steps" to determine the propriety of Cobbs' enrollment led the Center to believe he is suffering from the effects of football-related brain injuries.
In a subsequent order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere said prosecutors had agreed to Cobbs' request to seek medical treatment and asked her to defer a ruling on the motion to revoke until after he has completed inpatient testing and treatment at the Center. The diagnostic portion of the treatment normally lasts 30 to 45 days, according to Lane.
Deere said the Center must provide oral and written reports on Cobbs' diagnoses and treatment to U.S. probation officers, and that Cobbs must immediately return to the Eastern District of Arkansas after completing the inpatient program.
Killer of 3 in family files more motions
Self-avowed white supremacist Chevie Kehoe recently filed four motions as part of a continuing effort to have 1999 convictions and a life sentence thrown out.
Kehoe, of Colville, Wash., and Danny Lee of Yukon, Okla., both white supremacists, were convicted by a federal jury of three counts of murder-in-aid-of-racketeering for killing three members of a Pope County family, including an 8-year-old girl, in 1996, as part of a conspiracy to establish a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest. Lee was sentenced to death and remains on death row.
Among the documents filed in support of Kehoe's latest request is a July 21 letter he received while in the federal "super max" prison in Florence, Colo., where he has been housed since March 20.
The letter, from a Memphis attorney who was appointed to represent Kehoe in previous appeals, mentioned a call he had received from one of Kehoe's family members. Attorney T. Clifton Harviel wrote, "She was upset and saying you are facing more charges for an attempted escape."
The letter didn't elaborate, and Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said he couldn't provide any information on any attempted escape or any new charges Kehoe may be facing. However, Ross confirmed that over the years, Kehoe has been moved between the prison system's high-security facilities after some "security management issues." He is now in the most secure facility in the country, Ross said.
Ross noted that prisoners tend to get moved to increasingly higher-security facilities as they "wear out their welcome," and he said Kehoe "has put himself into the AD-Max," as the facility is known.
An online Freedom of Information Act request to the bureau for information about a possible escape had not been answered by Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes to dismiss Kehoe's latest attempt at post-conviction relief. Holmes has given Kehoe until Sept. 11 to reply.
Metro on 08/26/2015