A federal judge has denied a motion from former Faulkner County Circuit Court Judge Mike Maggio to set aside his bribery conviction and dismiss his the case against him nunc pro tunc, a Latin term meaning "now for then," that would have retroactively wiped the former judge's slate clean.
Maggio, 61, of Conway, pleaded guilty to bribery concerning federal program funds before U.S. District Judge Brian Miller on Dec. 9, 2015, and was sentenced on March 24, 2016, to 10 years in federal prison.
The former judge testified in the bribery conspiracy trial of Gilbert Baker, a former state senator from Conway, who was accused of funneling bribes from a Greenbrier nursing home owner in the form of campaign contributions to Maggio's aborted Court of Appeals campaign.
Baker was acquitted of conspiracy following a three-week trial in July 2021 before U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., who declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked on seven counts of honest services wire fraud. Federal prosecutors asked Marshall to dismiss the indictment against Baker in October 2022, just two weeks before he was scheduled to be retried on the remaining counts.
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. Federal prosecutors accused Baker of bribing Maggio as part of a scheme to get Maggio to lower a financial judgment against the nursing home in the 2008 death of patient Martha Bull.
Bull, who had suffered a stroke, died two weeks into what was supposed to be a one-month rehabilitation stint at the nursing home. Her family was awarded $5.2 million by a jury that concluded the nursing home was negligent in Bull's death.
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, which he did after Morton sent $24,000 to Baker that was destined for Maggio's Court of Appeals campaign.
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.
Citing the posts, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio removed from the bench in September 2014.
Maggio pleaded guilty in January 2015 to one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and was sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years in prison, the maximum statutory penalty and far above the recommended guideline range of 51 to 63 months in prison. He was released from prison after serving about half his sentence after testifying against Baker in his bribery conspiracy trial in 2021.
Prior to sentencing, Maggio tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that he had followed bad advice from his prior attorneys and that the government could not prove its case against him. An appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 was also unsuccessful, with the court ruling that Miller did not abuse his discretion when he sentenced Maggio to an above-guideline prison term. Requests to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal in 2017 were rejected by the high court.
In a May 1 motion, Maggio's attorney, James Hensley of Conway, asked Miller to place his client "in the same condition as all other defendants or persons of interest in this case" through a nunc pro tunc order that would "dismiss with prejudice the Information against him and exonerate him of any charges."
Miller's two sentence order on Monday gave no explanation for the denial.
The office of U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross declined to comment on Tuesday. Attempts to reach Maggio through his attorney, Jim Hensley of Conway, on Tuesday night were unsuccessful. Hensley did say Tuesday night that no decision has been reached regarding whether to appeal Miller's order.