Former lobbyist must stay jailed, prosecutors say
Response to Cranford filed
A federal magistrate judge should deny former Arkansas lobbyist Milton “Rusty” Cranford’s request to get out of jail, prosecutors said in a filing that argues Cranford has not proven he would sit still and not harm others.
Cranford lobbied legislators and other officials and worked as an executive for Missouri-based Preferred Family Healthcare, which was once Arkansas’ largest Medicaid provider of outpatient mental health care.
He pleaded guilty last year to paying bribes to two former Arkansas lawmakers to boost the nonprofit.
Cranford, 58, has been locked in the Greene County, Mo., jail for 17 months after Magistrate David Rush concluded that the former nonprofit executive tried to hire someone to kill a lobbyist who was cooperating with investigators. Cranford has not been charged in the murder-for-hire plot. Typically, defendants or people convicted in federal court are released until sentencing unless the government proves they are dangerous or likely to skip town. Now, because Cranford was ordered jailed without bail and convicted of a federal crime, he has the burden of proving he doesn’t meet those conditions, prosecutors said.
“[T]he very fact that Mr. Cranford would contemplate murder for hire makes him
a danger to the community,” the government said in a filing Thursday, a response to Cranford’s request earlier this month for release.
Sentencing for Cranford and several others has been delayed while the sprawling two-state federal investigation has moved forward. One related, active case in which Cranford could be called to testify won’t go to trial until April 2021.
Cranford, the only person convicted or charged in the investigation to be held without bail, is living in what was designed as a temporary jail for Missourians facing state charges.
The government’s filing, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Mohlhenrich, asked the court to deny Cranford’s request without a hearing, saying “much of Mr. Cranford’s motion discusses things not relevant to his burden of establishing, by clear and convincing evidence, that he is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community.”
In requesting his release, Cranford’s attorney Kathleen Fisher of Kansas City, Mo., cited his “exhaustive” cooperation with investigators, noting that it has caused him “abnormal personal hardship” because other inmates know he is working with law enforcement.
Cranford met nine times with investigators and appeared before a federal grand jury three times, Fisher wrote.
Fisher also said that the jail cannot provide him the health care he needs and that he doesn’t have the means, including cash or a passport, to run away.
“Mr. Cranford’s priority, if afforded pre-sentence release, is to spend as much time as possible with his family prior to sentencing; he has no intention, ability or desire to leave,” Fisher wrote in the July 12 filing.
Fisher has also identified two apartment complexes in Rogers in which Cranford could live. The location would allow him to see family while allowing for “total cooperation” with investigators, she wrote.
Prosecutors did not address any specific assistance Cranford has provided investigators.
“Mr. Cranford is free to make statements regarding cooperation with the United States in the investigation and prosecution of others,” a footnote to the filing says. “However … as a matter of policy, the United States normally advises the Court of a defendant’s assistance only at the time of sentencing.”
The government “strongly disagrees with counsel’s depiction of the Greene County Jail as creating an ‘abnormal personal hardship,’” and contends his “living situation is irrelevant to the legal standard for release.”
Other arguments raised by Cranford — that he wants to finalize his divorce and is concerned that other inmates know he is cooperating with the government — are similarly irrelevant to whether he should be released, the prosecutor’s brief argues.
Cranford was abusing drugs and prescription medications prior to his arrest, Mohlhenrich also noted.
“If released, he would once more have access to such illicit contraband at a time of great stress, when the most important aspects of his life — the custody of his children, his property, and his freedom — are not within his control,” the filing says.
Cranford has until Aug. 8 to reply to the government’s response.
A federal grand jury indicted Cranford on nine criminal charges in February 2018. He pleaded innocent to the charges and in March 2018 was ordered detained without bond.
Cranford pleaded guilty in June 2018 to paying bribes to former state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, and former state Rep. Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV, D-Pine Bluff, in an attempt to increase revenue for Missouri-based nonprofit Preferred Family Healthcare.
Both ex-lawmakers separately pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.
Sentencing for Cranford and several potential witnesses convicted in the Preferred Family scandal has been delayed. The nonprofit was formerly called Alternative Opportunities Inc. and did business in Arkansas under brand names that included Dayspring Behavioral Health Services and Health Resources of Arkansas.
The nonprofit’s former Chief Operating Officer Bontiea Goss and Chief Financial Officer Tom Goss, who are married, are the only people charged in the case who have not been convicted.
Both have pleaded innocent to more than 20 criminal charges. Their trial is scheduled for 2021.