{"id":22886,"date":"2021-08-06T21:02:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T02:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/?p=22886"},"modified":"2021-08-07T10:36:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T15:36:03","slug":"defense-focuses-on-disgraced-judges-credibility-as-baker-bribery-case-goes-to-jury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arknews.org\/index.php\/2021\/08\/06\/defense-focuses-on-disgraced-judges-credibility-as-baker-bribery-case-goes-to-jury\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense focuses on disgraced judge\u2019s credibility as Baker bribery case goes to jury"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gilbert
Gilbert Baker exits the U.S. courthouse on Friday afternoon (Credit: Brian Chilson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jurors in the bribery trial of former lobbyist Gilbert Baker went home for the weekend after hearing closing arguments and deliberating less than two hours Friday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deliberations will resume Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. Jurors have endured two weeks of testimony, more than a little legal jargon, and two coronavirus scares that sent one former juror and a prosecutor home with the virus and led to all trial participants being tested for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, is charged with bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy. He is accused of being the middleman in an alleged plot in 2013 to bribe former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Mike Maggio on behalf of Michael Morton, a wealthy nursing-home owner and campaign financier from Fort Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggio, who testified against Baker last week, pleaded guilty to bribery in 2015 and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Morton has not been charged and denies wrongdoing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jury instructions read aloud by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. indicated the prosecution had granted immunity to two of the government\u2019s witnesses \u2014 Little Rock attorney Chris Stewart and Linda Leigh Flanagin, who worked for Baker\u2019s lobby business LRM Consulting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case against Baker, 64, centers around Maggio\u2019s handling of a negligence lawsuit filed against Morton\u2019s Greenbrier Nursing and Rehabilitation Center over the 2008 death of resident Martha Bull, 76, of Perryville. Bull had entered the home for what she thought would be a 30-day rehabilitation after she suffered a mild stroke and an abdominal illness, but she died less than two weeks later. Despite screams of pain, staff at the facility did not take her to a hospital. On May 16, 2013, a Faulkner County jury returned a $5.2 million judgment for Bull\u2019s family.<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 8, 2013, Maggio held a hearing on the nursing home\u2019s motion for a new trial or a reduced judgment. That same day, Morton\u2019s office made out checks totaling $228,000, with $30,000 of that sum going to political action committees, or PACs, that Morton expected would in turn give the money to Maggio\u2019s campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. The next day, a FedEx package containing the checks arrived at Baker\u2019s home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 10, 2013, Maggio reduced the $5.2 million lawsuit judgment to $1 million.<\/span> Maggio testified last week<\/span><\/a> that he did indeed accept a bribe in return for lowering the judgment against Morton\u2019s nursing home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of PACs in this scheme is not benign,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ray White said in closing arguments. The PACs were officially set up by Stewart, the Little Rock attorney, but Baker controlled how the money was spent. White noted that some officers listed on the PACs' legal filings had testified that they didn\u2019t even know Baker had used their names as officers until news broke about the controversy surrounding the donations to Maggio.<\/span><\/p>\n

White noted that Baker also got Morton to donate directly to some candidates, rather than routing the money through PACs. Morton gave $48,000 directly to Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood\u2019s first campaign for the high court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, Baker opted to go a more roundabout way \u2014 via PACs \u2014 when asking Morton to donate to Maggio\u2019s 2014 campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Morton testified last week that he had thought the money would in turn go to Maggio\u2019s campaign, but knew he would no longer have control of it once it was received by the PACs. Ultimately, Maggio got some but not all of the PAC donations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time ever that Mr. Morton had put his money into a PAC,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the defense\u2019s closing, attorney Blake Hendrix attacked the credibility of Maggio, whom he called \u201cthe government\u2019s chief accuser.\u201d Hendrix recounted how Maggio has changed his story repeatedly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, Hendrix noted, Maggio professed his innocence. In 2015, he pleaded guilty but later unsuccessfully fought to withdraw the plea and said he\u2019d been pressured into accepting it. (He went to prison in July 2017.) Then, in December 2018, just before Baker\u2019s January 2019 indictment, Maggio began cooperating with federal investigators in hopes of getting a reduced prison sentence, Hendrix said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to go home. He wants to go now,\u201d Hendrix said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to throw Rhonda Wood under the bus, Gilbert Baker, everyone, under the bus \u2026 good, decent people,\u201d Hendrix said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggio testified that he had been friends with Wood, who worked in the same courthouse annex in Conway as he did when she, too, was a circuit judge. He testified that Wood asked him to delete texts he had exchanged with her and Baker. So, Maggio said, he deleted them. (<\/span>In her testimony last week<\/span><\/a>, Wood said that she and Maggio had been colleagues but not \u201cpersonal friends.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mike Maggio in 2016 (Credit: Brian Chilson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During testimony, Maggio sought to explain why he had had so much trouble in the past admitting he had taken a bribe. Maggio said he had originally thought of a bribe as something involving a bag full of money and a handshake in exchange for a favor. There was no black bag in this case, Maggio said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow credible is Mike Maggio [as] a witness?\u201d Hendrix asked jurors. \u201cWhen you hear Mike Maggio, it makes you pause \u2026 and question him. It should.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggio is \u201cone of the least credible witnesses I can even imagine,\u201d Hendrix said. He noted that former U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland, who was once a prosecutor in Faulkner County, testified that Maggio had an untruthful reputation in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a simple case,\u201d said Hendrix, who has previously argued for a bench trial due in part to the case\u2019s legal complexities. \u201cDon\u2019t get distracted by PACs and campaign contributions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Peters later countered that Maggio was not the case\u2019s centerpiece and that there was plenty of \u201ccorroborating evidence.\u201d She said Maggio\u2019s reputation was much better in 2013, when she said Hiland had indicated he was \u201cproud to be your [Maggio\u2019s] friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She noted that Maggio had been an attorney and a judge for several years. \u201cThe idea that he would walk into a courtroom and plead to something he didn\u2019t do\u201d doesn\u2019t make sense, Peters said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peters questioned why Baker had ever communicated with Maggio out of court about the Bull lawsuit in 2013, considering Maggio was presiding over the case. \u201cHe talked to him because he needed him to make the right decision,\" Peters said \u2014 meaning the one Baker thought would make Morton happy.<\/span> Prosecutors have argued<\/span><\/a> Baker was concerned he was losing favor with Morton at the time and was eager to prove his worth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Peters also noted that Baker solicited the money from Morton well before the 2014 election in which Maggio was running for the Court of Appeals. Judicial candidates can legally solicit or accept donations only within a certain window of time before the election. Baker had to get Morton\u2019s campaign money early, Peters said, because Baker \u201chad to hide\u201d the money, because \u201cthe money was a bribe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jurors in the bribery trial of former lobbyist Gilbert Baker went home for the weekend after hearing closing arguments and deliberating less than two hours Friday afternoon. Deliberations will resume Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. Jurors have endured two weeks of testimony, more than a little legal jargon, and two coronavirus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":22891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[340,342,341,386],"class_list":["post-22886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-corruption","tag-gilbert-baker","tag-michael-morton","tag-mike-maggio","tag-rhonda-wood"],"yoast_head":"\nDefense focuses on disgraced judge\u2019s credibility as Baker bribery case goes to jury - 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\/08\/06\/defense-focuses-on-disgraced-judges-credibility-as-baker-bribery-case-goes-to-jury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense focuses on disgraced judge\u2019s credibility as Baker bribery case goes to jury - Arkansas Nonprofit News Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jurors in the bribery trial of former lobbyist Gilbert Baker went home for the weekend after hearing closing arguments and deliberating less than two hours Friday afternoon. 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