{"id":22781,"date":"2021-04-22T10:14:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T15:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=22781"},"modified":"2021-06-15T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T18:56:09","slug":"bribery-case-against-former-state-senator-gilbert-baker-appears-headed-for-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2021\/04\/22\/bribery-case-against-former-state-senator-gilbert-baker-appears-headed-for-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Bribery case against former state senator Gilbert Baker appears headed for trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal court has ended any chance that a former chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas can avoid a bribery trial, unless he reaches a plea agreement first. Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., in a ruling Tuesday in U.S. District Court<\/a>, rejected a defense motion to dismiss the January 2019 indictment against Gilbert Baker, a former state senator and lobbyist from Conway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker, 64, awaits a trial set to begin July 26 on charges of bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy over allegations involving a plot to benefit himself, a now-former Faulkner County<\/span> circuit judge, and a nursing home owner and campaign financier.<\/span><\/p>\n

The indictment accuses Baker of being the middleman in a plot to bribe the former circuit judge, Mike Maggio, who presided<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>over a negligence lawsuit against a Greenbrier nursing home. The suit was brought by the family of nursing home resident Martha Bull of Perryville, who died at the facility in April 2008 at age 76.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bull had entered the home March 28, 2008, for what she thought would be a 30-day rehabilitation after she suffered a mild stroke and an abdominal illness. Her condition had worsened by April 6, and she died the next day. Despite screams of pain, staff at the facility did not take her to a hospital but gave her a suppository, a Tylenol, an antacid and even an antidepressant.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Faulkner County jury awarded a $5.2 million judgement in the Bull family\u2019s lawsuit against Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, owned by Fort Smith businessman Michael Morton. Maggio then reduced the sum to $1 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggio has changed his story more than once. He pleaded guilty in January 2015 to taking a bribe to lower the amount of the judgment. Though he later attempted to walk back his guilty plea, a federal judge refused to allow him to do so, and his attempts at appeal were unsuccessful. Maggio began serving a 10-year prison sentence in July 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morton, who has denied wrongdoing, has not been charged with a crime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In December, Marshall ordered the U.S. attorney\u2019s office and Baker to file a report by May 13 on whether the case is ready for trial or a plea agreement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris declined comment Wednesday, and Baker did not reply to messages seeking comment. <\/span>Asked if Baker plans to enter plea negotiations with the U.S. attorney\u2019s office, Baker\u2019s lead attorney, Blake Hendrix, said in an email Thursday, \u201cNothing has changed since the ruling. We will go to trial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall also granted two unchallenged motions from federal prosecutors, including one that disclosed the government intends to call Maggio as a witness at Baker\u2019s trial<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall agreed to bar the defense from asking Maggio during cross-examination about what the prosecution called \u201chighly inappropriate statements related to race, gender, and sexuality\u201d that Maggio made in online comments unrelated to the indictment\u2019s allegations. Those statements were one of the reasons the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Maggio\u2019s removal from the bench in September 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggio, who had posted the comments anonymously on <\/span>a website for Louisiana State University fans<\/span><\/a>, wrote about a range of subjects, including divorce, bestiality, homosexuality and a confidential Arkansas adoption case involving actress Charlize Theron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the highly inflammatory nature of the comments made by Maggio in the online forum, the danger of prejudice would substantially outweigh any probative value to the defense should cross-examination regarding these issues be allowed,\u201d the prosecution successfully argued.<\/span><\/p>\n

In seeking the indictment\u2019s dismissal<\/a>, Baker attorneys argued that if the government had not waited until 2019 to charge him, he would still have had access to text messages that would have helped his defense but no longer are available.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall\u2019s order, however, says federal prosecutors said they had tried to retrieve those messages in the fall of 2014 but found they\u2019d already been deleted from Baker\u2019s phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBaker may be prejudiced by the unavailability of the text messages,\u201d Marshall added. \u201dBut even if the United States had indicted him in 2015 instead of 2019, those messages would still be unavailable. Baker is the one who had control of his phone when the messages were deleted. Any prejudice is not the result of the Indictment\u2019s timing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall also rejected Baker\u2019s arguments that neither the bribery charge nor the fraud count adequately allege a quid pro quo and referred to a timeline provided in the indictment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The timeline says that on May 16, 2013, the jury returned a $5.2 million judgment against the nursing home over Bull\u2019s death. On June 17, 2013, the nursing home filed a motion seeking either a new trial or a reduced judgment. On June 29, 2013, Baker told Maggio \u201c\u2018your first 50K is on the way,\u2019\u201d a statement the government says \u201cMaggio understood to include support from Individual A,\u201d a reference to Morton.<\/span><\/p>\n

In late June or early July 2013, the timeline says, \u201cBaker communicates to Maggio that \u2018win, lose, or draw,\u2019 Individual A would support Maggio,\u201d who was planning a campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals.<\/span><\/p>\n

In early July 2013, the timeline says, \u201cBaker tells Maggio that Individual A is watching the civil lawsuit and would appreciate a favorable decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in early July 2013, the timeline indicates, Baker faxed Morton requesting campaign contributions to 10 political action committees.<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 8, 2013, it says, Baker and Maggio communicated by text. Morton wrote ten $3,000 checks, one to each of the PACs, and sent them to Baker\u2019s home. Baker got them the next morning and communicated by phone with Maggio that afternoon, according to the timeline. On July 10, 2013, Maggio signed an order cutting the $5.2 million judgment to $1 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall noted that Baker \u201cemphasizes the \u2018win, lose, or draw\u2019 statement; but how to interpret those words in context is for the jury.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Morton has said the donations\u2019 timing was coincidental. Maggio\u2019s aborted campaign for the state appeals court later got some but not all of the PAC money, even though Morton has said he intended it for Maggio's campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marshall also granted a prosecution request barring the defense from introducing results of a lie detector test that Baker has apparently taken. The prosecution said it did not know the examiner, the results or the questions asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

This reporting is courtesy of the <\/span><\/i>Arkansas Nonprofit News Network<\/span><\/i><\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal court has ended any chance that a former chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas can avoid a bribery trial, unless he reaches a plea agreement first. Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr., in a ruling Tuesday in U.S. District Court, rejected a defense motion to dismiss the January 2019 indictment against Gilbert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":22786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[340,342,341,343],"class_list":["post-22781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-corruption","tag-gilbert-baker","tag-michael-morton","tag-mike-maggio","tag-price-marshall"],"yoast_head":"\nBribery case against former state senator Gilbert Baker appears headed for trial - Arkansas Nonprofit News Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2021\/04\/22\/bribery-case-against-former-state-senator-gilbert-baker-appears-headed-for-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bribery case against former state senator Gilbert Baker appears headed for trial - Arkansas Nonprofit News Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal court has ended any chance that a former chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas can avoid a bribery trial, unless he reaches a plea agreement first. 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