A federal judge has granted a request by former Arkansas treasurer Martha Shoffner to exclude some evidence in her federal corruption trial next month.
Shoffner is to be tried starting March 3 on a 14-count bribery and extortion indictment. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes ruled that prosecutors can't introduce evidence from 10 new mail fraud charges added this month, for which Shoffner will be tried separately.
Holmes wrote in an order that prosecutors can introduce evidence that includes Shoffner allegedly receiving cash, gifts and a cellphone from a broker she's accused of steering bond business to in exchange for more than $36,000 in illegal payments.
Shoffner's attorney, Chuck Banks, had sought to exclude that evidence as well.