Gilbert Baker, the Republican Party operative and former state senator who was acquitted of conspiracy to bribe a judge earlier this month, will be retried this fall on eight other counts that deadlocked a federal jury.
Baker, 64, will stand trial Oct. 4 on one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and seven counts of honest-services wire fraud.
Baker was accused of bribing former Faulkner County Circuit Court Judge Mike Maggio to reduce a $5.2 million jury award in a wrongful-death suit filed against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Greenbrier, which is owned by Michael Morton of Fort Smith, by funneling $30,000 in campaign contributions from Morton to Maggio through a series of political action committees.
Morton, who testified at Baker's recently concluded trial, has not been charged in the case. Maggio, who is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to taking a bribe, also testified.
Baker's attorney, Blake Hendrix, couldn't be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the matter beyond the notice filed Thursday afternoon.
"The United States of America, by and through its attorney, Michael Gordon, Attorney for the United States Acting Under Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515, for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Julie Peters and Patrick Harris, Assistant United States Attorneys, pursuant to the Court's Order of August 13, 2021 (docket no. 140), respectfully submits this notice of intent to retry Counts 2 – 9," the notice stated.
Baker -- the former chairman of the state Republican Party -- went on trial July 23 on the nine-count indictment handed up in January 2019. On Aug. 12, after eight days of testimony and four days of deliberations, the jury returned with an acquittal on the conspiracy count and informed Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that it could not reach a verdict in the remaining eight counts.
The case itself was complex, with no clearly defined "smoking gun," prosecutors and Baker's attorneys agreed. Prosecutors instead tried to connect dots that they said pointed to Baker's guilt.
Jurors heard testimony related to phone records showing clusters of calls and texts between Baker and Maggio and between Baker and Morton around relevant times in the government's case. But, without recordings of the calls or printouts of the text messages -- which had been deleted in what Baker's attorneys said were routine mass data deletions -- the actual substance of those communications could not be proved.
At one point in deliberations, a juror sent Marshall a note saying the jury had deadlocked on all counts, prompting the judge to take the step of releasing the jurors for the day and telling them to return the next day to continue deliberations after taking time to step away from the case.
The move, known as an "Allen charge," is commonly referred to as "dynamiting" the jury to break a stalemate. Although some states consider an Allen charge coercive and prohibit its use, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its use in an 1896 ruling in Allen v. U.S.
After another day and a half of deliberations, Marshall told attorneys for both sides of the decision to abandon efforts to reach a consensus in the eight remaining counts on the indictment.
"We do not anticipate any additional time will result in any additional unanimous decisions," Marshall read from a note sent by the jury foreman. "Please advise for further instructions."
Hendrix and Peters agreed that the jury should fill out the verdict form for the unanimous decision on the conspiracy count but parted ways beyond that.
"Of course, we would move for a mistrial on the remaining counts," Hendrix said.
"I agree as to count one," Peters said. "As to the other counts, if they can't reach a verdict, we'll have to retry them."
Peters and Hendrix agreed that it would be counterproductive to compel the jury to continue its deliberations.
On Aug. 13, Marshall declared a mistrial in the case and gave government prosecutors until Monday to file their intentions to retry the remaining counts or to move for dismissal. Late Thursday afternoon, the government filed its intent to retry the eight remaining counts.
On Friday, Marshall entered the order setting the date for Baker's retrial for Oct. 4 at 9:30 a.m.