Panel to hear Maggio appeal

Oral arguments set for March 8 in ex-judge’s bribery case

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments March 8 in the federal bribery case of former judge Michael Maggio.

Maggio pleaded guilty in January 2015 to a federal bribery charge but unsuccessfully sought to withdraw the plea in early 2016. A judge rejected that request and sentenced Maggio to 10 years in prison. That was the maximum prison time allowed under the statute under which he was convicted.

Maggio appealed his conviction and sentence to the federal appeals court in St. Louis.

Appeals court judges hearing his case will be William Jay Riley, Raymond W. Gruender and James E. Gritzner.

Maggio, 56, is free pending his appeal.

In his 2015 plea agreement, Maggio admitted that he had lowered a Faulkner County circuit court jury's $5.2 million judgment to $1 million in July 2013 in exchange for contributions to his since-halted campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The decision came in a negligence lawsuit filed by the family of Martha Bull, a Perryville woman who died in 2008 in a Greenbrier nursing home owned by Michael Morton of Fort Smith.

Bull's family has since sued Morton and former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, a Republican lobbyist and fundraiser, and accused them of conspiring to funnel contributions to Maggio's campaign to get the judgment lowered. That case remains pending.

Neither Baker nor Morton has been charged with a crime, and both have denied wrongdoing.

Maggio was a judge in the Conway-based 20th Judicial Circuit -- which includes Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties -- when the negligence lawsuit went before him.

In September 2014, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio removed from office because of unrelated issues, including comments he made online about divorce, bestiality, race and a legally confidential adoption case involving actress Charlize Theron.

State Desk on 02/03/2017

Upcoming Events