The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Michael Maggio's petition to hear an appeal of his federal bribery conviction, but his attorney said Maggio still has legal options.
Maggio, 56, began serving a 10-year prison sentence in July after unsuccessfully trying to withdraw a guilty plea he entered in U.S. District Court in Little Rock to bribery. Among other issues, he had argued that his original attorneys had "badgered" him into the January 2015 plea agreement.
The effect, if any, on two other people Maggio has implicated in the bribery scheme -- nursing-home owner and campaign financier Michael Morton of Fort Smith and lobbyist and former state Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway -- is unclear.
A legal expert not involved in Maggio's case suggested that the ousted judge's likelihood of success at this stage is minimal.
"I think [the Supreme Court's] turning down his petition, that's really the end of the line," said John DiPippa, interim dean of the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The high court did not comment on its decision.
Maggio's attorney, John Wesley Hall, said a case that Hall views as similar to Maggio's in terms of a key legal issue could still offer hope to Maggio if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the other case.
The U.S. solicitor general, who represents the federal government before the Supreme Court, is to file a response in the other case by Nov. 24. That case also deals with a quid pro quo issue, Hall said.
Depending on what the solicitor general says in that case, "a petition for rehearing might be appropriate," Hall said in an email interview. "On the other hand, it could be a death knell for [that case] that [the Maggio] review was denied" in the Maggio petition.
Hall also raised an old issue as a possible avenue of appeal, one that another Maggio attorney had raised at one point but later abandoned: ineffective assistance of counsel -- specifically by Maggio's original attorneys, Lauren Hoover and Marjorie Rogers.
Maggio has alleged that Hoover and Rogers "badgered" him into pleading guilty.
Neither Hoover nor Rogers returned email or phone messages seeking comment Monday.
Hall said a petition for post-conviction relief based on ineffective counsel would be due in 10 months. A petition for rehearing would extend that time, he said.
Asked whether Maggio might cooperate again with the federal government in the hopes of getting his prison time reduced, Hall said, "Unknown since his cooperation wasn't all that good to begin with it would seem." Hall said, he was sure the U.S. attorney's office would want any information Maggio might have.
Hall said such a decision is up to Maggio, "and we haven't talked about it in a while," since Hall has been busy with another case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens declined comment on whether the investigation of the bribery Maggio detailed in his agreement was continuing. Givens confirmed that anyone in prison can cooperate with the federal government and have the U.S. attorney's office recommend a lighter sentence. Givens declined comment on whether that would happen in Maggio's situation.
At this point, Maggio is the only one who has been charged with a crime in the bribery case. In his agreement, he said his campaign had indirectly taken thousands of dollars in funds for his final judicial race in exchange for his lowering a Faulkner County jury's $5.2 million judgment to $1 million in a nursing home negligence lawsuit.
The agreement did not identify Baker or Morton by name, but both men have said Maggio was talking about them. They have denied wrongdoing.
The negligence lawsuit resulted from the 2008 death of Martha Bull, 76, of Perryville in Morton's Greenbrier nursing home. On July 8, 2013, Morton signed off on thousands of dollars in donations to several political action committees. On July 10, 2013, Maggio slashed the judgment. Morton has said he intended for the PAC donations to go to Maggio's campaign for an appeals court seat, and some did.
Baker's attorney, Bud Cummins, did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Morton, said Morton and his attorney had no comment.
DiPippa said that if the Supreme Court had thought Maggio's case was "sufficiently alike" the other case Hall mentioned, "they would have taken both of those cases or asked for additional time in both of them."
"Usually what that means is that they [the Supreme Court justices] don't think that anything that they do would affect the Maggio case," DiPippa added.
On the likelihood of Maggio's resuming cooperation with the government, DiPippa said, "I think the issue is whether or not he really does have information that can be used in some other prosecution or investigation. I don't know [if he does] because I don't know how many other people might be caught up in that investigation.
"From the outside, it doesn't look like there'd be much information that would be helpful" that the prosecution hasn't already acted upon, DiPippa said. "But again, I don't have enough information to know for sure."
Another element is that the U.S. attorney's office in Little Rock has changed leadership since Maggio pleaded guilty. Chris Thyer was the U.S. attorney then but recused from the case, leaving his chief deputy, Pat Harris, in charge. Cody Hiland, a former prosecutor in the same judicial circuit where Maggio formerly presided, became the U.S. attorney in October.
Maggio was a judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which covers Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties.
The statute of limitations for prosecuting anyone else in the bribery case also is approaching.
Harris has said that the window would close in 2018. He was not more specific, and Givens later declined comment on that matter.
The law provides a five-year limit from the time the last crime occurred. Exceptions include a crime that also involves murder. The Maggio case did not involve a homicide. Based solely on Maggio's publicly released plea agreement, the five-year limit could be reached in July 2018.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio removed from the bench in September 2014 because of comments he made online. Among them were posts about women, divorce, sex, bestiality and a legally confidential adoption case involving actress Charlize Theron.
State Desk on 11/07/2017