The U.S. Supreme Court today denied without comment Mike Maggio’s petition to consider an appeal of his conviction and 10-year federal prison sentence for bribery.
It was among dozens the court dispensed with.
Maggio began serving his sentence in July for admitting that he’d been influenced by campaign contributions from a nursing home owner, Michael Morton of Fort Smith, to reduce a verdict against one of Michael Morton’s nursing homes from $5.2 million to $1 million. The contributions were arranged by former Republican Sen. Gilbert Baker. Neither Morton nor Baker was charged and both have said they did nothing wrong in contributing to Maggio’s campaign for Court of Appeals, scrapped by this and another ethics violation. Maggio attempted to withdraw his guilty plea and also argued that the prosecution hadn’t met the standard for a bribery case in charging him.
The completion of Maggio’s criminal case now clears the way for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Morton and Baker over the verdict reduction (Maggio was held immune from lawsuit for acting in his official capacity) to attempt to draw testimony from Maggio to support their suit on behalf of the estate of the woman who died because of inadequate care and which saw the unanimous jury award reduced by $4.2 million.
Rumors have also long circulated that the federal public corruption team that brought this case — and which has been working on kickback cases against two former legislators in Northwest Arkansas — might plan more action on completion of the Maggio criminal case. But that’s only speculation at this point.
The federal Bureau of Prisons indicates Maggio is being held at the McCreary federal prison unit in Pine Knot, Ky, It includes a high-security prison and a 159-inmate minimum security camp.