AR Times: “Former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Mike Maggio has been released from federal prison after serving less than half of a 10-year sentence for bribery.
The development is the latest in a long-running and complex criminal case that dates back to 2014 and that has entangled a once-powerful Republican lobbyist, a wealthy nursing home owner, an Arkansas Supreme Court justice and others. Maggio was accused of reducing the amount of money a jury awarded in a 2013 civil case he presided over as a judge and expecting campaign donations in return.
Maggio, 60, was freed Wednesday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ website. Since he was first incarcerated on July 19, 2017, he has been held in facilities in Kentucky, Atlanta and other undisclosed places….Gilbert Baker, a former state senator from Conway and former chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, was accused of arranging a bribe to Maggio in 2013. In August, a federal jury found Baker innocent of one count of conspiracy but could not reach a verdict on charges of bribery and wire fraud, resulting in a mistrial. That verdict came after days of deliberations and weeks of testimony by a wide range of high-profile witnesses, including Maggio. The former judge, who arrived at the courtroom in shackles, told jurors in the Baker trial that he had indeed accepted a bribe in 2013.”