Michael Maggio, the former circuit judge from Faulkner County who was at the center of a bribery scandal involving a former state senator who recently had his indictment dismissed, is seeking an early termination to his term of supervised release.
Maggio, who served about half of a 10-year sentence in prison after pleading guilty in 2015 to taking a bribe in exchange for lowering a jury award in a wrongful death lawsuit, has served just over one year of a term of supervised release ordered by U.S. District Judge Brian Miller.
The early termination motion, filed Friday by Maggio's attorney, James Hensley of Conway, said that Maggio "has completed all his terms of supervision and has no need for programming or treatment," and that all factors set forth for early termination have been satisfied.
"He had minimal special conditions and has fully complied with all of them," the motion said. "He self-surrendered and served his prison time without incident. His supervision has likewise been without any incident. Mr. Maggio has steady employment, residence, and family life."
Maggio testified in the 2021 bribery trial of former state senator Gilbert Baker, who was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery and wire fraud. Maggio was released early from prison in exchange for his testimony after serving five years in federal prison.
Baker was acquitted of bribery conspiracy by a jury after a 13-day trial in July 2021, but a mistrial was declared when the jury deadlocked on the remaining counts.
The indictment against Baker was dismissed by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. -- who presided over the Baker trial -- a week ago after a dismissal motion by the U.S. attorney's office just over two weeks before Baker was scheduled to be retried in the matter.
Baker, who in 2013 was working as a lobbyist and Republican Party fundraiser, helped arrange contributions from Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center owner Michael Morton for Maggio's campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The next year, Maggio withdrew from the race after a scandal related to comments he was purported to have made on a Louisiana State University website. Baker was accused of arranging the 2013 contributions as a bribe to get Maggio to reduce a jury award against the nursing home from $5.2 million to $1 million.
The family of 76-year-old Martha Bull of Perryville filed a wrongful-death suit against the nursing home in Faulkner County Circuit Court.
Bull died in 2008, about two weeks after being admitted for an expected month-long rehabilitation for a mild stroke and an abdominal illness. A jury found in favor of the family and ordered Morton to pay $5.2 million but in July 2013, Maggio ordered the jury award reduced to $1 million. Prosecutors in Baker's trial said the order was made a day after Baker received 10 checks totaling $30,000 from Morton intended for Maggio's campaign.
Both Maggio and Morton testified for prosecutors at the trial. Morton maintained that he had broken no laws and the contributions he channeled through Baker to Maggio and to Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood -- who also testified -- for her Supreme Court campaign, were routine contributions of the type he made to many candidates. Neither Wood nor Morton were charged and Wood was later cleared of an ethics violation in the matter.
Baker was accused of funneling some $25,000 of the campaign contributions to Maggio from Morton through a series of PACs and straw donations. The jury deadlocked on the bribery and wire fraud counts after four days of deliberations which included an order by Marshall midway through its deliberations for the jury to cease and go home for a good night's rest before resuming the next day.
The move, known as an "Allen Charge" -- sometimes referred to as "dynamiting" the jury -- refers to jury instructions given to a hung jury urging them to agree on a verdict. Marshall gave the instructions after he received conflicting notes -- one from the jury foreman and one from a juror -- regarding the state of the jury's progress near the end of the second day of deliberations.
Maggio's motion for early termination of supervised release noted that both the U.S. attorney's office and the U.S. probation office had been notified and that the U.S. attorney's office opposed the petition. As of Saturday, the government had not filed an opposing motion. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the matter beyond saying an opposing motion is not required for the judge to rule on the petition.