Sentencing Hearing Set For Former Treasurer Martha Shoffner

by KUAR FM 89.1 ([email protected]) 134 views 

Chris Hickey with our content partner, KUAR FM 89.1, reports:

Former Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner is to face a federal sentencing hearing Friday morning in Little Rock.

Shoffner was convicted last year of bribery and extortion and is to appear in the courtroom of of U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes.

Prosecutors had asked last month for a sentence of 15 to 18 years in prison, while attorneys for Shoffner recommended a 12 to 18 month sentence, with some time in a half-way house and some in home detention.

The 71-year old Shoffner, was initially investigated for steering state investments to bond-broker Steele Stephens in exchange for regular cash payments delivered to her Newport home in a pie box.

A separate dispute of mail-fraud charges, involving Shoffner’s alleged use of campaign funds to pay off personal credit card debt, was to be taken up in a separate trial last year.

The charges were dropped after Shoffner tried entering a guilty plea but prosecutors now would like to use those allegations to justify an increase in her sentence.

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